Need great free advice to represent self

[curious228]

My husband's ex is taking him back to court to modify child support. She has remarried and moved up in the financial world. We filed chapter 7 bankruptcy last year. About 6 or 7 years ago my step daughter was in a school bus accident, she was uninjured, that resulted in 2 large settlements, one for the ex-wife for taking care of the child and one for the child. These records were sealed without our knowledge of any details. The child, 22 years old now, is totally handicapped (cerebral palsy since birth).The mother claims the child gets NO disability, NO medicaid, NO social security payments of any kind. My husband has been divorced from her since 1992, but apart since 1990. During the marriage she was very secretive about money, so he has no clue what his daughter's resources are. My question is: Does the ex's settlement and his daughter's settlement figure into the equation for child support? The ex also owns 3 homes, 4 vehicles, a landscaping business with her new husband, he owns 3 vehicles, and they both have good jobs they have been on for over 25 years with retirement and benefits. My husband was a struggling truck driver till we had to give up and go under. We aren't even making it from week to week. My husband suffers from chronic kidney stones and misses a lot of work, plus he's a diabetic. I don't work because I take care of his aging parents and everything that goes with that. My husband makes $15.00 an hour. That is poverty level in today's society with the cost of gas and food. Does anyone have any advice? Court is in 2 weeks, thanks.

[tbyte]

Is he still paying support, even though the girl is 22 years old? Was this stipulated by State laws, by the original custody orders, or by a modification of the orders after the accident occurred?

[curious228]

He is still paying support on her because she is handicapped. He'll have to pay on her as long as she lives.He has two other daughters that are 33 and 28 that are still on the order that aren't handicapped. In the papers we received the other day it has a clause to remove these two girls because they've reached the age of emancipation, you think! There has been no modification to the original divorce degree since she went to DHR several years ago when we fell behind in payments and she had a wagewitholding order issued. At that time she lied about the amount he owed and DHR just wrote it all down as gospel and issued papers on it. At the time of the divorce, payments went to HER not through court. He wasn't involved with me then or that act of stupidity would have never happened. Anyway, after he and I married in 95 she claimed only the monies WE had paid cause she knew I had receipts. We managed to find almost $4,000.00 worth of money order receipts (from before my time) that we took to DHR and they took that amount off the total arreage from their viewpoint. I said, " Does this not prove she's a liar?". "No, she doesn't have to prove YOU owe it, YOU have to prove YOU paid it." So, as of to date, my husband's arreages show $4,000 some odd dollars and the state has tacked on $17,000 INTEREST that she wants in two weeks. I guess we're screwed? She has never shown verification of her income in any of the hearings, go figure how she gets away with that. No, I know how she does, she exploits the poor, handicapped child in front of everyone. She has used that child's condition since birth and when the bus accident happened she used it to the hilt! Rumor has it to the tune of $1.4 million dollars. But, the court rulings are sealed, so we don't know.

[tbyte]

Are you telling me that he has been paying child support for a 28 year old and a 33 year old?
And what, EXACTLY, is the wording of the court order or applicable State law the requires him to pay child support for a handicapped child after that child is emancipated?

[curious228]

Yes, these girls are still on the child support order. He's tried to get them taken off and DHR said the MOTHER had to come over there and do it, fat chance. I got his divorce papers out and read over them and it DOESN'T say anything about paying support on her for the rest of her life. He has always said that he'd have to, but there's nothing in writing. I googled laws in Alabama pertaining to support for emancipated disabled children and it says there's no statutory law but, it is Common Law to support them past the age of 19, or at least that's the way I understood it.

[tbyte]

That is complete bullcrap. DHR does not have to wait for the mother initiate the process of removing emancipated children from a child support order.
Who told you that DHR said that?
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to assume that your husband told you that DHR told him that.
It was your husband who told you that he had to pay support for the remainder of his daughter's life when this was also false.
It was your husband who had allowed this to go on years past the time it should have been resolved.
I have news for you. Your husband is completely clueless and irresponsible. If you are determined to resolve this issue, you are going to have to assume full responsibility. You are going to have to disregard everything this man has told you, and you are not going to be able to rely on him taking any action on his own.

[curious228]

My eldest step-daughter told us that. She went to DHR herself and told them that she was however old she was at the time and said "Take me off the order" ( cause she loves her daddy), and they told her that her MOTHER would have to do it. Lack of money to hire a decent attorney has kept us from getting anything done cause you can't do it on your own! I know my husband is clueless and irresponsible. He's let his ex walk ALL over him ALL their married life and beyond. But, like I said , she uses the condition of the disabled child to get anything she wants. Push a wheelchair with a really sweet, completely helpless child in it to a county office and see how much help you get. I know I have to take full responsibility...why do you think I'm on here seeking some kind of advise I can blast his ex with? My original question of "Does the money from the lawsuit figure into calculating child support?" has YET to be answered! People...I need answers!! And Alabama DHR is BULLCRAP.... Backwoods, redneck, hillbilly bullcrap!

[tbyte]

Your question was buried deep within your original post. I have tried to understand the details of this case and advise on what are, really, larger issues.
But, it is my understanding that one-time settlements would not automatically figure into child support. At least not in the father's favor, anyway. If the settlement was set up as an annuity with recurring payments, then it might automatically be factored in.
That said, family courts are free to be very creative with the laws. In legal terms, the are given "broad discretion" to do whatever they want, and short of outright violating a law, the appeals courts will not overrule them. So, it is possible that a court would take this settlement into account.
But again, that seems to me to be a secondary issue next to the question of whether he should be paying support at all.
Haul his ass down to the Child Support Enforcement Agency (they probably will not talk to you without him present) and make them tell you themselves that he should still be paying support for a 33 year old child.

[tbyte]

FYI, the information I found on the web indicates that child support halts at 19 years old, the age of emancipation.

[curious228]

After a lousy night's sleep, it came to me this morning, something I read on the many websites I've visited. My husband's child support was rendered as a weekly sum for 3 children, not "this amount for 1 child." I read, that when that's the case, the eldest child does not drop off automatically. You would have to go to court and have an amendment rendered. It is when the YOUNGEST reaches emancipation and THAT is what happened. The CURRENT support stopped but, since there was still arreage owed, we continued to pay. His ex found out that the youngest had dropped off at 19 and all our payments were going to lowering the back support, so we were making some head way. THAT is why she is taking us to court, to put HER back on AND FORMALLY take the other two OFF. And since my husband makes more now than he did in '92, stands to reason he'll be paying more for 1 than he did for 3. THAT is why I needed to know if her finances played a part, to make a point of us living paycheck to paycheck and her laughing all the way to the bank. She is driven by PURE revenge at my husband for divorcing her. These two married at seventeen because she was pregnant... this has been going on a LONG TIME!