Child Support in Focus: Retroactive Payments

On the off chance that you have require a best reasonable Texas Divorce Law encounter, Child Support in Focus: Retroactive Payments with the immense procedure!

Family Lawyer in Houston: In the event that you do not have a child support order from a Texas Family Law Court that has ordered the payment of child support from another person to you, it may be a question bouncing around in your mind whether or not you can go back and collect payments that would have been made if an order was in place.

If you are the party that would either be eligible to receive those payments or the party who would be on the hook for retroactive child support payments this is a blog that will hopefully be of some assistance to you.

How to go about seeking retroactive child support payments

A court must, if you are seeking to receive retroactive child support payments, do the following:

> Figure out whether it must order these payments to be made
> Determine the actual time period that retroactive child support should be collected for
> Determine what the paying spouse (obligor) earns in terms of net monthly resources for each year that retroactive child support is ordered
> Take the Guideline levels of child support from the Texas Family Code and apply them to the income set forth from #3 and determine what is actually owed in retroactive child support
> Take into consideration any circumstances/factors that are necessary in order to deviate from the guidelines levels of support

From the obligor’s standpoint, one of the first things that a court will consider is whether or not he or she has ever been ordered to pay child support on any previous occasion.

If you are the non custodial parent of a child and have never before been ordered to pay child support you can be ordered to pay retroactive child support by a court. On the other hand, if you have been previously ordered by a court to pay support for this child then a court can still order you to pay support in the event that:

>The earlier child support order terminated because you married or remarried the parent who has filed the petition to receive retroactive child support payments
> You and the Petitioner then became separated after you married or remarried
> Now that there is a separation ongoing the Petitioner is seeking a new order based on that separation

The key here is to understand that just because you have filed, or someone has filed against you, for retroactive child support that does not mean that a judge has to grant the petition. I have seen judges make rulings that have denied retroactive child support petitions on the grounds that the obligor had previously paid amounts towards the support of the child even if those amounts were less than the guideline amounts set forth in the Texas Family Code.

How is the time period that child support is to be collected determined?

Houston Family Law Lawyer: Based on the Family Code, if your court orders an amount of support that is what would have been ordered for the prior four year period before the retroactive child support suit had been filed will likely be considered reasonable.

Keep in mind that the standard a court uses when making any decisions regarding a child is whether or not an order is in the child’s best interests. If you are a parent who is worried that you may be on the hook for retroactive child support this may lift your spirits a tad. There are not that many circumstances that I can think of that will cause a court to award retroactive child support beyond four years.

In the event that you knew or should have known that you were the father of a child whose other parent was seeking the establishment of a child support order and you attempted to avoid the obligation it is possible that a judge could order retroactive child support back until the date you knew or should have known of your obligation to pay child support.

Net Resources- How is this calculated for a potential obligor parent?
If you are a regular reader of this blog then you may recall that we have written pretty extensively in the past about this subject.

I’ll save you all the rehashing of the subject here and instead point you to search for this topic on our website. You will find all the information you could possibly want on the subject in our archives.

Obviously, for retroactive child support the court will need to rely on older information to impute a net resources figure on you, and then apply the guidelines as set forth in the Texas Family Code (unless it has reason to deviate from those standards).

A court may consider costs associated with:

> the health or education of your child
> the frequency with which you have visitation with your child and also
> the age of your child

when considering whether to deviate from the statutory standards for child support.

Additionally, as it pertains specifically to retroactive child support, a court will consider whether or not the petitioning party has attempted to notify you previously of the fact that you are the father of this child.

If it looks to the court that you knew of your paternity or should have known based on evidence made available to you then you may be on the hook for a greater than guidelines level of child support if such an order would not place an undue hardship upon you from a financial perspective.

Questions on retroactive child support? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC today

Family Lawyers in Houston: Whether you are the parent who may be potentially liable to pay retroactive child support or are the parent who is seeking retroactive child support, the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC are here to help.

Our licensed family lawattorneys are available six days a week to meet with you to answer your questions in a free of charge consultation. We represent clients across southeast Texas and would be honored to discuss the services we can provide you and your family as well ... Continue Reading