Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia
Payment of half medical bills per divorce decree
My divorce decree states that I am responsible for half of my daughters medical bills. My ex wife is responsible for keeping my daughter covered under medical insurance coverage. My ex wife was fired from her job back in September and I just found out that she did not have my daughter covered under insurance from September - December. I found out in January and picked my daughter up for medical coverage at my job. However my ex wife is demanding that I pay 1/2 of the medical bills while my daughter was not covered. Im sorting thru the bills now so I am not sure of an amount but Im sure it to be large for me. Am I still entitled to pay half even though she is responsible for keeping medical coverage on my daughter? What should I do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Payment of half medical bills per divorce decree
The correct answer to this will depend on the exact language of your agreement, but it appears from your question that you may have a couple of possible options. You could file for contempt because she violated the requirement for maintaining insurance and the court may declare her to be a self-insurer to the extent of what the insurance would have covered (same argument could be raised by you in defense of a contempt filed by her). You could also seek to modify the agreement/order to require that you maintain the insurance and possibly modify the other child support provisions as well.
I would encourage you to review the case with a family law attorney to discuss these and other possible options as son as possible.