I'll try to make this as short as possible.
Someone in my family is faced with a situation with an ex-husband and they need some legal advice. This is a situation where the ex-husband has bullied the other into agreeing to things outside of a divorce decree. This will hopefully end up in a court room at some point, but the ex-wife/mother is looking for some kind of reassurance that she won't make things worse by taking him on. Her main focus is her children, which all of us parents can relate to.
These two divorced in 2007 or so. At the time, they lived in Columbia, SC. She was given the house, which had a couple of liens that she couldn't afford to pay, so she had to sell it and move herself and her two young daughters to her parents' house in Greenville, SC. He was against this, despite the fact that she couldn't afford to take this on by herself, and he agreed to her idea of lowering the child support payment from $1,000 to $800 so she could get out of there and try to get her feet back on the ground. This reduction in child support was never cleared by the court and began in January 2009.
A year later, he quits his job in Columbia, SC and moves to Atlanta, GA for a new job. The visitation gets changed up because his work schedule is now different. So beginning at this time, the visitation schedule listed in the divorce decree is no longer applicable due to the change in locations of the parents.
This remains in effect until July 2013, when she and the girls move from South Carolina to Texas (where she is originally from). He wasn't thrilled about her going, but she gave him advance notice of over a year that she was planning to move, and he did nothing to fight it. He was happy for her and wished her well. Since she was the one moving, she agreed to pay for the girls to fly to Atlanta ten times per year. Given various holidays and summer time, this would result in the number of nights with him to remain relatively the same. He was good with that.
Fast forward to today. He quit his job a year and a half ago to start flipping houses. That hasn't worked out too well. He is now going to move back home to Columbia and live with his parents while he gets his situation improved. He is now two months behind on child support (not counting what he has been short on over the last several years). She informed him over the weekend that she had agreed to fly them to Atlanta, not Columbia. The cost to fly into Columbia is roughly double what it costs to fly into Atlanta. He expects her to pay the difference. I think she is now at the point where she is ready to say F it, screw all of this crap where she is the one making sure her daughters get to see their dad, and just go to court and ask for full custody. She has said that if she goes to court with him, she's going for it all instead of trying to work with him anymore. I think she's about ready to do that.
So my question in this very long post is, what are the possibilities in this situation? From my perspective, the last thing this guy would want is to have to explain to a judge why he lowered the child support payments years ago without court approval. It seems to me that this guy could be in really deep shit, from both a state and federal angle. He's not paying full child support, and now the kids have been in Texas for almost two full years, and he hasn't lived in the same state as them for 4-5 years due to his move to Atlanta. I don't know if he would be in as much trouble as I think he would be, but I know if I were in his shoes I would be puckered up tremendously at this point.
So anyway, this is a person who is very nervous about taking action, but is finally ready to do so. Anything you can throw out there that would help her get a feel for how this thing MIGHT play out if she goes to court would be helpful. If she files anything, it will be in Collin County and she does not have any legal representation as of yet. So if you're interested in a case like this, I might have a prospective client for you.
Sorry for rambling, but it's a long story and I told her I would ask on here because this is my source of knowledge on everything. Thanks for the help.
Someone in my family is faced with a situation with an ex-husband and they need some legal advice. This is a situation where the ex-husband has bullied the other into agreeing to things outside of a divorce decree. This will hopefully end up in a court room at some point, but the ex-wife/mother is looking for some kind of reassurance that she won't make things worse by taking him on. Her main focus is her children, which all of us parents can relate to.
These two divorced in 2007 or so. At the time, they lived in Columbia, SC. She was given the house, which had a couple of liens that she couldn't afford to pay, so she had to sell it and move herself and her two young daughters to her parents' house in Greenville, SC. He was against this, despite the fact that she couldn't afford to take this on by herself, and he agreed to her idea of lowering the child support payment from $1,000 to $800 so she could get out of there and try to get her feet back on the ground. This reduction in child support was never cleared by the court and began in January 2009.
A year later, he quits his job in Columbia, SC and moves to Atlanta, GA for a new job. The visitation gets changed up because his work schedule is now different. So beginning at this time, the visitation schedule listed in the divorce decree is no longer applicable due to the change in locations of the parents.
This remains in effect until July 2013, when she and the girls move from South Carolina to Texas (where she is originally from). He wasn't thrilled about her going, but she gave him advance notice of over a year that she was planning to move, and he did nothing to fight it. He was happy for her and wished her well. Since she was the one moving, she agreed to pay for the girls to fly to Atlanta ten times per year. Given various holidays and summer time, this would result in the number of nights with him to remain relatively the same. He was good with that.
Fast forward to today. He quit his job a year and a half ago to start flipping houses. That hasn't worked out too well. He is now going to move back home to Columbia and live with his parents while he gets his situation improved. He is now two months behind on child support (not counting what he has been short on over the last several years). She informed him over the weekend that she had agreed to fly them to Atlanta, not Columbia. The cost to fly into Columbia is roughly double what it costs to fly into Atlanta. He expects her to pay the difference. I think she is now at the point where she is ready to say F it, screw all of this crap where she is the one making sure her daughters get to see their dad, and just go to court and ask for full custody. She has said that if she goes to court with him, she's going for it all instead of trying to work with him anymore. I think she's about ready to do that.
So my question in this very long post is, what are the possibilities in this situation? From my perspective, the last thing this guy would want is to have to explain to a judge why he lowered the child support payments years ago without court approval. It seems to me that this guy could be in really deep shit, from both a state and federal angle. He's not paying full child support, and now the kids have been in Texas for almost two full years, and he hasn't lived in the same state as them for 4-5 years due to his move to Atlanta. I don't know if he would be in as much trouble as I think he would be, but I know if I were in his shoes I would be puckered up tremendously at this point.
So anyway, this is a person who is very nervous about taking action, but is finally ready to do so. Anything you can throw out there that would help her get a feel for how this thing MIGHT play out if she goes to court would be helpful. If she files anything, it will be in Collin County and she does not have any legal representation as of yet. So if you're interested in a case like this, I might have a prospective client for you.
Sorry for rambling, but it's a long story and I told her I would ask on here because this is my source of knowledge on everything. Thanks for the help.
