Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California
I live in California and I am twice divorced and am obligated to pay two different states (OK and MO) for child support. I am currently seeing someone and we are contemplating marriage. Is there a way to protect my future wife from having her income garnished for my child support? I currently have an arrearage of approximately five thousand dollars and have an agreement to pay my current support and an amount toward the arrearage balance every month. I have heard that in the state of CA, spouses of individuals who pay child support may be obligated to pay their partners child support, but I don't want to burden my fiance with this possibility. Can we set up a prenumptual agreement that protects her?
1 Answer from Attorneys
There are two parts to your question. Under normal conditions, the income of one spouse is not accessible to pay the child support requirements of the other spouse except where not to do so would be unjust.
To protect increase the amount of income that is protected from your debts, a prenuptial can be signed that designates as separate property the earnings during marriage of your spouse. However, even in that case, you may not find complete protection if a judge determines that avoiding her assets protected by a prenuptial would be unjust.
Since your arrears were established, however, before your potential marriage, your spouse could argue that it would be unjust to touch her interests in property for debts incurred before marriage which would be your separate debts.
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