Im 20 years old and i think im going to jail sept 4,Please help me!!!

[pleasehelpme1988]

ok so i have to go 2 court on sept4 in brooksville fl for child support.it says ''motion and notice hearing on contempt'' i have pay my ex no money at all since she put me on child support because of the fact that i have 2 other baby girls,one is 3 and the other was born on valentines day and they mean the world to me,i couldn't pay my ex no money because i was buying food and clothing for both and also i was paying rent with my girlfriend so we can at least have light and things for our kids.now i owe like 7,000$ and i am so scared for my life because i do not want to go 2 jail.i wrote my ex that i was gonna help little by little if she took me off but she didnt,now with the hearing comming up i dont what is expected?i know imma man now and i have responsibilitys but it is hard out here to get a job and since i lost my job my girl friend been paying rent and everything else so what do i do and whats gonna happen to me....Help me please guys your all i have....Thank you for reading my story and please respond ....GOD BLESS ALL!!!!

[Droogle]

If the child support was ordered by the court then you are responsible for it.  It doesn't matter that you have 2 othre children that you are taking care of you still need to support the other one.  You may be able to have your support lowered if you are out of work but you will still owe the arrears.  The judge may set up a way for you to pay it back over time.  He can also put you in jail or suspend your license.

How much is your monthly support?  Why did you lose your job?  How old is the child?  Who made  the support order?  Why are you in contempt?  

The above is all things that can happen for not meeting your obligations to your child.  HOpe it all works out for you.

[Davy]

The best thing you can do at this point is to get a job, any job, to demonstrate your willingness to try to find a way to pay child support.  This may be the best way to stay out of jail.

Of course once you're in jail or don't have a license to drive to work then your children are less likely to receive any support.  Many, many men have been in your situation so find a way to overcome.

AFTER this contempt hearing you can focus on finding a better paying job or getting a second  job to dig your way out.  It might help to demand a paternity test for the first child.

In reality, the government and this other woman don't care about children.  They do care that you pay the woman and she is completely unaccountable for the money or supporting the child.  

Whatever, just be heads up and polite and do not let the goverment do this to you or your kids.

By the way, thanks for posting and best to you and yours...things will work out.

[superdad01]

Although I sympathize with your situation, you need to  quite having kids you can't support.

[Ref]

You should get a job... any job you can get your hands on. If you are paying through the court system, send some money to pay down some of what you owe and ask for a receipt.

The arguement you will want to use is that you are trying and that you will be happy to pay off what you owe, but you need to be out of jail in order to do it.

If you have a hard time finding a job, go to the local job center. Check out this site  http://www.floridajobs.org/workforce/jobseek.html

You also should look at how your child support is calculated. http://www.alllaw.com/calculators/childsupport/florida/

This is what the standard is. Normally the courts in Florida do not adjust for children you have after the one you are paying support for, so that is something you can bring up and will be considered but it is typically thrown-out of court. I guess the thought is that your first child shouldn't financially suffer because of your choice of haveing more kids.

Here is a link to some self-help centers. http://www.flcourts.org/gen_public/family/self_help/map.shtml

You will want to go to the nearest one and ask for them to point you in the right direction. I don't think they are allowed to give you advice, but they can help you.

Oh! If you lost your job through no fault of your own, you can counterfile for a modification of child support due to a change in circumstances.

The people at the self-help center may be able to get you the right forms. You can also request that this gets addressed with the contempt hearing, although it is a little close to the date for them to do that.

Best wishes,
Ref

[reagantrooper]

Your only 20 so I am assuming your kids are very young. So I have to say get used to playing this Fing game and be prepared to pay this x and maybe your current GF (at some point) a good chunk of your hard earned money also be prepared to get no accounting of said funds. Being less than 10K inarears you probley wont go to jail YET.

Whatever happens stick to your guns with regards to seeing your kids remember that CS and your Parenting time are NOT linked and never let anyone tell you different!

As a kid I would spend a lot of time up around Brooksville hunting. I lived down in San Antonio in Pasco county.

[rainewayward]

I've been on both sides of this situation and let me tell you, it sucks.  When my ex first left, he was responsible for paying child support.  I tried to get DCSE to cancel, but I had received food stamps for a couple of months.  His child support was required to pay them back before our case had any chance of being closed.  He went to jail, his family paid the support to get him out, and life went on.

A few years later, custody changed hands.  I was then responsible for paying child support.  When the amount was figured, I had recently lost my job due to an injured ankle.  The General Master stated that CS would be calculated based on my earning potential if I had a full-time, minimum wage job, plus child care.  When I got about $2000 behind, I went to court with the potential of going to jail, though my parents were able to help me.  DCSE has been very strict about making sure that I have been up to date on my payments.  I too live in FL.

In my experience, judges don't care about your inability to find a job, how many other kids you have, or whether you're scared of jail.  They hear things like that all the time.  Unless you have been deemed unable to work, you need to be out there supporting your kids, or you'll go to jail.  I'm not judging you, only telling you what I have experienced.  

I wish you the best.