SPARC Forums

My husband and I are going to court against his ex for a number of reasons, one of which happens to be child support.  However, due to certain actions on the part of his lawyer, my husband and I have decided to forgo the gentlman's services and are forced into doing this on our own.  I have no problem typing the court documents, but I still need advice on certain things and I don't feel like giving the lawyer 400 a pop just for questions.  :-P  

Even with 55% being taken out of his paycheck, he can't pay the court ordered amount based on a previous job.  

He's been at this new job for a few months now, and I would like to request that child support be reduced retroactively, from the time he started this job.  Is this possible?  

but the only date I beleive you can set as a date you can go back to retroactively is the date you filed for the change in child support.

You will only be successful if you can prove that this is not a voluntary pay cut.  In our state, it seems a VERY difficult thing to prove--we have tried a few times in recent years (one time initiated by ex, once by us.)  Even though my husband was injured on the job, on complete disability for 8 months, only allowed back to work with restrictions, and declared "medically stationary," the state would not reduce CS.  He started school full-time after his accident, and CSD says that is "voluntary underemployment."

Almost every situation I have heard of suggests that CS is only changed retroactively to the filing date.  Our state recently changed it to the date that the other party is notified rather than when you file.  When my husband's CS was reduced, the forms the state sent never indicated that it was retroactive--however when the ex appealed and the amount went up, they were pretty quick about getting the right date on there.

That said, get in there and take care of it.  You really have nothing to lose by not trying to reduce CS.  Make sure everything is in order and good luck to you....