Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois
too much money?
my boyfriend pays $326 every pay period to his ex wife for child support for his daughter.
three years later, he was dating a woman who he broke things off with and then called him 3 months later and said she was pregnant and wanted to keep the baby. she said she wont take him to court if he pays her her money, which he has been doing.
he now pays her $275 every pay period, along with the $326 he pays to his ex wife, for a total of a little over $600 per pay period.
he is also filing for bankruptcy because he got all the debt in his divorce from his ex wife and cannot afford all this child support payments along with his mortgage and bankruptcy fees. he is VERY frugal and does not waste money in any way.
is there anything he can do? he is afraid to go back to court because he is making a lot more than he was when he got divorced and should be paying his ex wife more than he is now, but that would be even worse and then he really couldn't afford things. he is also worried that the courts would put an order in place for this second child and that he would end up having to pay even more to her too, based on the 20% income calculation used in Illinois.
should he keep it the way it is, or can he get some relief?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: too much money?
Of course a person can get relief by going to court, but if he owes money by standard court calculation (i.e. 20%) and cannot show good reason why there should be a downward departure, he will have to pay.
Re: too much money?
This needs to be unraveled. My guess would be that the 2nd child isn't his.
Continue paying the ex wife. Stop paying the girlfriend(ex).
If the Child is his he will eventually have to pay, but she might be collecting money from 3 different guys. He just doesn't know.
He has a statutory obligation to pay child support on his children, but not on anyone else's children.
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Re: too much money?
From what you've said he likely should do nothing. Bankruptcy has no impact on a child support obligation. You're mostly correct, child support is nearly always going to be 20% of his net income.
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