Remodification..... attorney or go it alone?

[superdad01]

Recently took a $3 pay cut per hour and the FOC told me I qualify for a free re-modification because order has been in place for numerous years. So I'm looking over the paperwork and I am nervous.  Mother is now a certified registered nurse but I believe she can get around it without being imputed at that wage.

I made decent money last year, however this year is much different with my wage cut. They want last years w-2 and paystubs. If they say last 4 paystubs I wonder if I could do a combination of 2 paystubs and 2 week unemployment check which is my current situatution.

I wonder how successful a attorney would be in negotiating childsupport? I know it goes by guidelines but...


Any help would be appreciated.

[superdad01]

I was more or less saying in going for a remodification would I be further ahead just letting the friend of court do it or in addition to me trying to upgrade my entire order in addition to remodifying my CS

[4honor]

(Ok, maybe it is DH's experience but you can use it or leave it as you see fit.)

When SS was 11 we used the free modification process. We went in without an attorney. DH was paying $353.63 a month before, and he came out paying $250 a month until SS was 13 (court requires an increase at 12 otherwise) and then it would jump to $300 a month.

In our case, the judge looked at the evidence (6 hour round trip in the car with rising gas prices, health insurance payments made and an additional 2 children in OUR household ( I had lost my job just prior to us looking into a modification of the order.) We could have fought and had a 65-70% chance of getting about $150 a month order, but the court suggested that we go into a room and use FOC as a mediating entity. An agreement (reluctant as it may be) was reached, and the judge said, fine and went back to the date of filing as the date of the order. And she had to prove she had spent $1200 a year before DH owed 50% of uninsured medical/dental/vision/mental health costs.

BM built up attorney's fees of about $2000 and still ended up with $1200 less per year. BM asked that DH pay her attorney's fees and yet we proved she made $10 more than DH per month. No attorney's fees were ordered.

Before you go, read the state laws on child support and see if any of the deviation from guideline information applies to you. Go in with all your documentation in hand.Bring proof of anything you can to support your position. Bring 5 copies of each with you (one bench copy, one for the file, one for the FOC, one for the other parent and one for you to keep.)

Next month is the last CS payment. (Happy Dance!)

[gemini3]

what state are you in?

[superdad01]

I'm in Michigan.

I am making $3.00 less per hour which is basically $400 less per month.
I am now paying for health insurance which is about $150 a month . Company was paying it when order was issued.
Mother is now a Registered nurse and I am unsure where she is working, but I do know she quit a job at the hospital. Hopefully she will no longer be imputed at minimum wage ($5.50/hr

I have a printout from state website with her nursing licence.
I will be going to salary.com and printing out salary figures

We both pay nothing for childcare since according to her she never works so why would we need that.

Instead of the paycut I was thinking I was losing my job which I think would have been more benefical to my case since I would have more time to spend with the child and I could have possible moved my time into a more equal time frame in which i would have qualified for more overnights and gotten the shared economic responsibility.

[superdad01]

ok it appears from talking to my supervisor we will be working week on and week off for a while. So this will further decline my income due to collecting unemployment benefits 2 out of 4 weeks per month.

[awakenlynn]

Definately do your research first!  Also how much trouble with ex give you if you go it alone?  In general I would suggest an attorney who would know all the in's and out's of child support.  We did it pro se one year in IL and it stayed the same (ex wanted an increase) and this year when ex wanted it reviewed, she likes to keep claiming we are not paying support but it is generally problems with the CSO instead.  In IL we had the child support abated for the 8 weeks we had the SD in the summer.  TX has run into a MAJOR problem trying to add this into their system and it really screwed up the numbers, by THOUSANDS of dollars.  So hubby sat down with the Attorney General who takes care of the child support in our case and child support was actually decreased for us along with changes to take into account the abatement they had to work with.  We do have arrears to take care of but TX is still doing an audit (since March), they keep losing paperwork.  Hubby has been laid off since January and the guy was pretty understanding about it and just said to keep them up to date.  Hubby got a temp job starting next week, being a restaurant server (an $11 difference in pay) so we need to talk to unemployment and the CSO and see how things can be taken care of.  Hopefully the construction industry will kick back in soon!

Make sure you look at all your finances no matter how small.  An attorney, even if you just see one as a consultation can tell you basic things the courts will and will not take into account.  If ex likes to play games and you know who she works for an attorney could possibly subpoena her employment and tax information.