SPARC Forums

If the CP and NCP have agreed on a monthly amount and no court was previously involved?

If the CP decides to take NCP to court, can the court actually decide that the agreement they both signed is void and order back support?

>If the CP and NCP have agreed on a monthly amount and no
>court was previously involved?
>
>If the CP decides to take NCP to court, can the court actually
>decide that the agreement they both signed is void and order
>back support?

Yes.

Under the law of every jurisdiction, parents may not bargain away their child(ren)'s right to support. If a final or temporary child support order has been entered by the court at some past date, then the support amount ordered therein is the lawful amount due and payable from the NCP to the CP according to the conditions of the order. The parties to such an order, cannot independently modify the support amount due and payable, without the court's express consent. Therefore, either parent can ask the court to void the agreement for a different support amount, and if the court believes that it is fair to modify the agreement, then the court can modify, and make orders finding the paying parent in arrears up to the entire amount due under the original order.

The court can also refuse to vod the agreement of the parties -- but, as a practical matter, such an outcome is "extremely" unlikely.

If no support order has been previously entered by a court, then the agreement of the parties for support would control, in the same manner as any other contract. However, the court can void the agreement because its subject matter violates public policy, and then the court can enter a lawful child support order, which in most jurisdictions, may include some amount of retroactive support, if the original agreement between the parties reduced the paying parent's support obligation, to an amount less than the state guidelines would have required.