CS Adjustment

[B'sMa]

This Is my first posting here and i am delighted that there is somewhere I can go for advice.

My Ex and I settled out of court in 2003 regarding custody and CS…upon making his decision the judge told my ex that he was supposed to be submitting his income tax to me each year which he has not. I was never really overly concerned with the amount of money he was paying as long as he was paying and was being an active participant in my son’s life which he is as for paying he does so on his terms mostly on time and in full but also so here and there when "more important" things come up, as I have been told.

My son now 14 is starting to cost me more than a fortune so last fall I told my ex, (who which I might add makes more than twice than what he did when he was ordered to pay support initially), that I was going to have to get him to adjust the payments accordingly to help offset some of the day to day costs. Well he came at me guns a blazing acting like a child who was told to share his candy refusing and fighting tooth and nail to do so.

He and I have joint custody and are supposed to have shared parenting responsibilities but until this juncture he has always lived and worked out of town thus me having our son more than 75% of the time but once I told him I was going to need more support he has quit his out of town job for a lesser paying job in town so he can utilize his access to our son thus having him the scheduled 42% in turn to lessen the guideline amount. However mark my words, once all is said and done, he picks up and takes his position out of town again leaving me with the majority care and no more CS. What are my rights?

Does the judge look at the historic living arrangements when making a decision?

[Fam Law]

Hi and welcome to the forum There are a lot of experts on this site and it too has helped me immeasuarbly. So that being said, I'll start the ball rolling and the real experts can provide their input.

You should start the process of filing a motion to change CS, then your ex will be mandated to disclose the last 3 years of Income Tax Summary. You indicated that he purposefully underemployed himself by not working out of town anymore. The courts will see through this and impute his income.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to document everything! Emails, phone conversations, etc.... If you are getting a lawyer you must still be prepared to do a lot of work yourself! Educate yourself now, but know that it will be a long process (minimum two years) for any final order ammendment to happen.

Most likely if you start your motion now you can still seek an interim motion of relief to bring the CS amount to what it should realistically be.

Good Luck,
Fam Law

[Rioe]

I'm going to go the opposite direction in advice.

First of all, you have made a big historical mistake, which it may not be possible to fully recover from. You did not adjust CS annually, to match any changes in income. CS should be adjusted regularly, when there's a change in income (usually captured annually at tax time) and when there's a change in custody arrangements. Such adjustments would have been a great help to you all along. You can probably get some arrears, as your ex should have been adjusting it himself all along, but it's not going to be anywhere near the amount your son would have been entitled to. And what about extraordinary expenses? You ought to have been sharing those in proportion to your incomes all along as well. That would have alleviated a big part of your increased expenses. You probably can't get fully reimbursed what you missed out on there either.

Second, your ex is dropping his income and taking a new job near your son and trying to spend more time with him? Fabulous! No, it's not the meek, "sure here's more money" response you were hoping for, but think about it from your son's perspective. His dad wants to be with him more! The CS will drop both due to the different custody arrangement, and due to the change in income, but your expenses will also be less, and your ex will have increased expenses. Think of the teenage boy grocery bill alone. Oh, and the benefit to your son to have his dad more involved in his life. Maybe the ex's motivations are primarily monetary, but the benefits to your son will be worth it.

And if, as you believe, the ex packs up back to the higher paying job and sends the son to live with you the majority of the time again, then you just go back to the non-offset CS calculation, and his payment to you jumps again.

A judge will probably not look at historic living arrangements, but at what is in your son's best interests, which is likely to have an involved father. At this age too, what your son wants to do will be as important, if not more so, than what has been the past arrangement. I think you are far more likely to get a couple of years of arrears CS than you are to get his income imputed to his out of town amount.

But as mentioned, document everything. And after all is said and done, make sure you exchange income info annually, and adjust CS and extraordinary expenses regularly. Then this problem won't happen again, and you'll have the new routine down to habit by the time post-secondary issues come up.

[B'sMa]

Thanks so much to both of you for your advice. It is very much appreciated good and bad as it does help me to see things from different perspectives...now that being said, to Rioe:

....."Second, your ex is dropping his income and taking a new job near your son and trying to spend more time with him? Fabulous! No, it's not the meek, "sure here's more money" response you were hoping for, but think about it from your son's perspective".....

I have never been objective to the ex spending time with our son and I am all in favour of him coming in and being there as he was instructed in the first place...as I said he and I have joint custody and are supposed to have shared parenting responsibilities thus you can trust it is not all about being greedy and wanting more money.

I had previously tried to have him adjust the CS but because we were going through the FRO, (because he decided he shouldn't have to pay 8 months after we settled out of court in the first place and it took me 4 years to get money out of him again or even an address or phone number), we would continuously have to go to court every year to make it happen....But I can't afford to go to court every year. SO when I asked him to raise the CS to help offset the costs, (he makes almost $100,000.00 and pays only $350.00 monthly), I wasn't asking for $1,000 a month....just a little extra to help out with the day to day. My husband and I run a quaint and comfortable household so I wasn't overly concerned with trying to gouge him.

I just want him to help out more and I feel as though he will avoid doing so at all costs. My main question was essentially am I going to take bath in this case and if or when that happens and then he goes back to work out of town, where does that leave my son? Emotionally and financially?

[hadenough]

$350 A MONTH?? With a 100k income?!

A motion to change (MTC) can really take up to 2 years? Can anyone confirm, is that Form 15?

[MrToronto]

The childs 14 years old he'll be 18 when this is all over, it's a proven fact a man or women who actually spends more time with his children the bond is strenghtened and they actually pay more..it comes naturally. It's doubtful your current husband will like the meat grinder it's exhausting for relationships...like it was said above get dad to move closer and spend more time with the junior then the money should flow.....if you've been in court you know how much of your life gets sucked away it's abssolutely terrible there and nobody really wins anything but bitterness...just a thought

[billiechic]

i seriously doubt you will be in court for 2 years, or 4, or whatever you have just been told.
My recommendation:
Send a letter to your ex (via registered mail) requesting proof of his last three years of income so that the CS can be adjusted as per your agreement.

Please make sure to state WHY the increase is needed (not just because of your agreement), but because you have extraordinary expenses, and include the monthly amount (for sports, tutoring etc).

Also find a way to reference the amount of time he is actually spending with your son, and what the agreement states.

Reiterate what you have said above, that you encourage him to spend the time with your son, but that the cost of raising him has increased over time, and that it is his responsibility to share in the costs.

Give him a timeframe to respond within, offer mediation or some other agreed upon solution, but be clear that you will follow through to court if you have to.

It seems from your posts that there is a good chance you can work this out. The court will probably award you some retroactive support, but it wont be too much. It is your responsibility to ask for the income information, and request changes as they happen. You can't wait years to collect.

[B'sMa]

Yep $350....he was ordered to pay that back when he was only making $39,000 almost 10 years ago...like i said it wasn't until my son started getting really really expensive that we needed help....but my stupidity forletting it go for too long I guess.....shoulda hamboned him like my husband's ex does to him...guess it's just not in me.