Legal Question in Family Law in Germany

Re: Child support from parent in another country

The answers to your questions, based upon the information that you have supplied, are as follows:

1) Germany and the U.S. have a reciprocal relationship with respect to the enforcement of orders for child support. It is thus possible to have the child support provisions of your U.S. divorce enforced in Germany. The easiest way to do this is by contacting the Georgia Department of Human Resources' Office of Child Support Enforcement. By establishing a case with them, they can assist you in having Germany enforce the support order and collect the past due child support.

2)Your ex-husband can be charged with abandonment, although having criminal charges enforced across international boundaries is tricky at best. I would contact your local District Attorney's office to discuss whether they are able to pursue abandonment charges accross international boundaries. With respect to a proceeding for civil contempt of court, it is technically possible to puruse this, however, the difficulty of having him seved with the papers in Germany (a pre-requisite to going forward with the action) would be considerable at best. If you know where in Germany he is living, however, it may be possible.

3)With respect to modifying your divorce decree to give you sole custody, this is, again, technically possible, but would require you to have your ex-husband personally served with a copy of the law suit seeking to change custody.

4)Under Georgia law, it is possible to have a person's parental rights terminated after they have failed to provide support and/or have substantial contact with the child for over one year. Termination of parential rights agaisnt a person's will, however, generally has the result of terminating their obligation to pay child support. There are exceptions to this general rule, but they are rather narrow, fact specific exceptions. Furthermore, even if it were possible to suspend the father's parental rights under Georgia law without effecting his obligation to pay support udner Georgia law, it is possible this could effect Germany's ability to enforce the U.S. support order. (As I am not familiar with German domestic law, I am unable to say one way or another whether this would be the case.)

I hope this information is helpful.

Sincerely,

Byron M. G. Sanford