Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

claiming child

I recently divorced from my husband of 20 years. In the divorce decree, I agreed to alternate claiming our daughter for tax purposes. Since the divorce, he has not been around for my daughter and has only seen her for a total of 9 hours for the year of '08, however, he does pay child support but the amount of what him and I agreed to, not the state. It also stated that he was liable to pay for our life ins and i was to pay him $20.00 towards this insurance. I did pay him faithfully each month only to find out he pocketed the money and never paid for the ins. Since all of this happend, and he defaulted first in the divorce decree, do I have the right to claim my daughter since he doesn't see her or call her. Take note, he's only 5 minutes away from her and only seen her for 9 hours total in '08.


Asked on 1/26/09, 3:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kelly Papa Law Office of Kelly Papa

Re: claiming child

I understand that you are frustrated, but the proper recourse is not to even things out by claiming your daughter for tax purposes. Is this the first year that this issue has come up?

I would suggest calling your ex first, and noting that you think it would be fair for you to be able to claim your daughter this year. If he is not agreeable, you can always do a motion to enforce the final judgment. You can even move for attorneys fees, since he is not fulfilling his end of the deal. The Court can send him to jail, give him a strong warning, or enter other kinds of "punishment" to get him to adhere to what you were both ordered to do.

I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

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Answered on 1/27/09, 9:49 am


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