child support agreement

[mishelle2]

nc dad is in CA
cp mom is in FL
CA has child support jurisdiction

parents are trying to come to agreement regarding child support, father will pay an amount above guideline, mother will forgive all arrears.

1. What form needs to be filed with Child support office?
2. Can parents both write a letter to Child support office stating same and have it notarized?

3. Please advise

thanks

[socrateaser]

>1. What form needs to be filed with Child support office?

If DCCS is handling the case, you'll have to discuss your solution with them. If the arrears are for you, and you want to forgive them in return for higher than guideline support, you can try, but the court may not sign off because you're compromising the child's right to support, and if the paying parent gets into financial trouble and support is modified downward, then you'll have lost the benefit of the bargain.

You are better to simply set support at some number, and then add some amount to cover the arrears.

If the arrears are due the State of CA for reimbursement of public assistance, then there's no way the court will sign off on it.

>2. Can parents both write a letter to Child support office
>stating same and have it notarized?

Yep, but I don't know that it will matter. I doubt that DCCS will enter an order that permits you to waive the arrears, because the State gets 15 cents for every dollar collected, so by letting you waiver, the State loses money.

If you really want this to go down, then you need file a stipulated motion to modify support with the exact text stating that you are releasing the ncp from any future liability for arrears in consideration for his payment of $X now, and then set support at some specific amount.

If you just say that you want to waive arrears in return for higher future support, the court will not sign, because that violates public policy that prohibits parents from bargaining away their child(ren)'s right to support.

What you're trying to do is basically give the ncp a free pass at the kid's expense, and the court won't go for it -- and even if the court inadvertantly signed the stipulated order, because it didn't read it carefully, if you ever go back to court, the court might set the prior agreement aside as violative of public policy. So, I advice that you don't try to do this, unless the ncp is willing to pay some reasonable amount in cash to get rid of the arrears, and you believe that there is no reasonably likely possibility that the ncp will ever be able to satisfy the origianal arrearage.