Forgiveness of Child Support Arrears

[72264kids]

State with jurisdiction is Florida, I live in Virginia.

The CP may be willing to forgive child support arrears if I give them a lump sum of money.

I have contacted the Florida Department of Revenue who indicates that the entire process can and should be done through them without the judge's signature.

I have also heard that if things are done this way, the arrears will still exist and I will still be liable for them.

I am pretty good at drafting Pro Se stipulations, but want to make sure that this gets done right.

So my questions are as follows:

1) Should this be done through the DOR or through a judge?

2) What guarantee do I have that the DOR would honor such an agreement? After all, a common creditor does not have to honor a judge's signature if you are held harmless from a debt during a final dissolution of marriage.

3) Could this stipulation put the CP into a situation where we are forced to hand out financial affidavits?

Thank you for your time.

[KAT]

Frankly, I wouldn't call it forgiveness I would simply state that both parties agree that amount of arrears have been paid in full. I wouldn't  state the amount of the agreement either.  Both parties notorize it, send it to the courts for the judges signature then send a certified copy to CSE. Of course they want you to go thru them....if no one did they wouldn't have jobs. In addition they lose their federal dollars for collection of the arrears (even if technically they didn't collect).
KAT

[72264kids]

Thanks for this advice.

The only concern that I have is that if I give the CP the lump sum of money before a judge signs the order, the CP may run off with the money.

Then what happens if the judge decides he doesn't want to sign the stipulation?

The only thing that I could think of doing is sending the ex a restrictive endorsement check for the lump sum first (conditional upon the judge signing the order).

CP insists that they receive the money first.

So are you saying that I can bypass the DOR and still have them honor the judge's order?

What are your thoughts on the rest?

Thanks again

[leon clugston]

there is two sides to this, and you wnat to be very, very carefull,federal law prohibits the states from forgiving support monies that are owed to the child or custodial parent. However if the monies are owed to the state(for assistance, medicaid) they can do it, also a custodial parent if they choose can waive monies owed to the child(however, under the administarive law, there has to be aproved by a judge)( thats debatable) but there you are, and a state cannot wive any monie owed directly to the child, so the question is due yoy owe the state, or the custodial parent, for it to be legal.

[72264kids]

thanks for the advice, moot point, the CP has decided to rescind as usual...