Has anyone here had to file contempt charges against a BM in another state?
DH's CS order states very clearly that visitation transportation and childcare costs are to be split between the parents. Within 2 weeks of paying for either childcare or travel they have to send receipts and an invoice to each other, and then they have 30 days to reimburse the other parent. DH has paid his share of childcare without fail, BM of course is another story. She has never actually reimbursed us for anything in 4 years. Usually she just tells DH to deduct it from what he owes for childcare. At this rate we could not pay for childcare for the next 5 years and she would still owe us money. We paid for SD's holiday trip and have not been reimbursed - BM said she would send a partial payment by a specific date - have you seen it? Cause we haven't either.... So now she thinks we'll just let it go - Nope, not happening. We just booked SD's summer visit airfare and sent off the receipt/invoice and have already received an email stating that she "can't pay her portion". Sorry - It's not optional. We've asked her to start a payment plan and she just ignores it - even though this is in the CS order! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
So my question: BM lives in another state, we approached DH's attorney about filing contempt charges for non payment and he claims that we can't since she's in another state. I say BS. The order is in our state, our state is enforcing CS, so why shouldn't she be held accountable to the order and charged?? Has anyone else come across this? I personally think that DH's attorney just doesn't want to be bothered with this, but it's starting to add up to a good chunk of change that she owes us.
Thanks in advance,
B
question
Does the county authority take child support out of your DH's pay? If so, in MN but not sure about your state, after I submit the bills to my ex, he has 30 days to pay me and if he does not pay me I send the info to the county and they send him a letter giving him another chance, if he still does not pay up, the county gets a judgment against him and the amount of CS he pays goes up until the additonal money owed is paid.
Hope this helps. I would look into getting a judgment against her and then you can garnish her wages or her bank account.
We use the states Child
We use the states Child Support Enforcement service, but they don't take it out of his pay.
Thanks for your reply, I'll look into this.
The courts told us yes.
When we moved we were told specifically by the judge that if BM did not comply with the order and put SD on a plane that we needed to let them know right away and we could file the contempt charge. Now...do we physically have to be there or can it be a phone call in is up to the judge. If I were you I would call up to the court house where BM lives and ask to speak to the assigned judge and ask. I would certainly try it. You can legally, I think, even send a draft via email to BM showing her the motion that you are prepared to file if she will not comply and that you would rather that she comply instead of being forced to file this motion. Give her a time limit to respond and if she doesn't file away...I know you can do this because our old attorney had to do that exact thing to BM to show her he wasn't playing around. It isn't a threat because you have the right to disclose prior to filing any legal forms.
The court with jurisdiction
The court with jurisdiction over the orders is here in our state. There isn't a judge assigned to it, just the judge that was presiding and signed off on the orders.... Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.
Get a new attorney.
Perhaps one that has actually studied the law and passed the bar.
♥ Georgia ♥
"Good men don't just happen. They have to be created by us women." (from ROSEANNE)
you also might want to check
you also might want to check on the amount of time you have to submit the request -
in our state in re: to medical bills, if the party who has not been properly reimbursed does not submit the form for enforcement of payment within 1 year of the date of service, the court won't enforce the reimbursement. In other words if you wait too long to go after the person refusing to pay, the court won't back you up.
Don't be surprised if they won't uphold all 4 years worth of non-payment for something that isn't actual child support. In our case it helped us because bm tried to sue dh for payment of some medical bills that were accrued prior to their support order. The judge told her to go through the proper channels and because it was so old, they didn't make him pay it.