Texas child support question

[awakenlynn]

We live in IA and our case is being transferred to TX.  We have spoken to a few attorneys. He has a large law firm and family law is his specialty.  He has told my husband that because we live out of state and TX has never been a residence, that the ex cannot ask for a support increase unless she comes to IA.  If we ever wanted to ask for a decrease, we would have to go to TX.  

He said it was done in order to help stop the 'unfair" portion of the statutes where it states that the jurisdiction must be in the state in order not to cause an 'unfair advantage".  (Part of the UCCEJCA-sp?)

I have never heard of this.  Does anyone know if its true?  Also, the child support is going from IL SDU to the Texas version.  Are they allowed to make changes to the support?

No one has sued for a change and there has been a review every year.  There has been no increase in pay, just an decrease(company is reducing hours, trying to put off layoffs).   Unless ex actually transfers the whole case and try for a modification, the state must uphold the IL law until someone tries to modify.

Thanks,
Lynn

[ocean]

From what I understand....
Until one of you tries to do something it stays in IA. BM needs to stay there 6 months before she can ask for a change in jurisdiction and you can fight it if there is no reason for change. She would need to come to IA to ask for the change and IA would have to "give it" to TX.

If she moved to NY then she "could" ask for the CS to be moved so she can get child support until 21 (that is under NY standards). So there are some laws that stop this. I am really never dealt with it so maybe someone else can help you more....

You can ask this questions on the SOC board on this site. He is a lawyer and will give you advice for free! Just state your facts and number your questions.
:)

[awakenlynn]

The thing is.  We live in IA, ex lives in TX and has for 3 years.  She choose to keep jurisdiction in IL-that is where the case started and was kept because both parties had military ties.

My husband got out in '02.  Ex choose to keep the jurisdiction in IL, but decided this year that she wanted to change it to TX.  

Now, I do know that if she wants changes she actually has to request to move jurisdiction to TX, until then if we had a problem, we would have to go to TX and ask them to uphold the IL orders under the agreements to uphold each other's legal decisions.

My question is to verify what the TX attorney told me.  That because both parties live in different states, due to the 'unfair advantage' in the codes, if the ex wants to change and increase child support, ex would have to come to IA, and if we want to reduce support, we would have to go to TX to do it.

Lynn

[KAT]

Lynn, work up totals for both states. If it's less in TX (I suspect that might be the case) then heck, let it be heard there. Hubby can likely appear by phone with prior approval from the judge. If it's less in IA then motion to dismiss since TX has NO jurisdiciton over your husband (such as they lived there as a married couple, children born there etc.) . I'm afraid it's not really as cut & dry as the TX attorney made it sound. Custody/visitation of course is another matter.
Another thing, the duration of child support is one aspect  that can not be modified. If it were think of how many CP's would be flocking to NY or NH.
Good Luck.
KAT

[awakenlynn]

I know its not cut and dried, sometimes I wish it was.  I ran the child support through both states and they come up almost exactly the same.  IA does it slightly different, but when you add everything you can take out, it comes out to about the same as TX after you subtract everything out there.

We don't mind paying what we are.  We know custody/visitation is different and TX would have jurisdiction there when ex decides to move it there.  We are going to wait on our petition and let ex incur the extra costs.  This way we make sure we have what the TX courts require to make a case.  We know though, that we CAN ask the TX courts to make a ruling based on the IL decisions if ex decides to threaten and make a fuss over what is already decided.

Ex is moving the child support from the IL SDU(where they collect the support) to the TX office of Child support thru the Attorny General(?).  Do they have the ability to review the case and make changes, such as increase the support without a court hearing to do so?

Thanks,
Lynn