Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

Re: Back Child Support

As frustrating as the system is, the purpose of the URESA is to save the custodial parent the expense of making frequent trips to another state where the payor resides to collect support. Although your state agency in TN could not tell you how long it would take to process your paperwork to IN or how long it would take IN to get his attention, you now know that his attention has been gotten. Because IN has all of your information necessary to enforce support, you do not need to be present at any hearing, regardless of wanting to tell the court what you want to happen. The purpose of the trouble you went to for the past 16 months was so that you did not have to come to IN for a hearing. The failure of the initiating state and the responding state to have better communications about what is happening is something that only the agencies involved or the federal government (who insisted that all states have the URESA law) can change. The goal is to get current support resumed on a regular basis. Of course, the non-custodial parent frequently contacts the custodial parent to complain - but remember it is all his fault for failing to pay his obligation, not yours that he got caught. Ask your case worker if you have the right to have additional information forwarded and then write a letter to be forwarded to the responding state for consideration on penalties for non-payment.