Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland
How retroactive can a modification be made?
I have been doing some research on current legislative bills. Is there any law as to whether or not arrearages can be modified? I know the House Bill 442 only applies this to incarceration, this is not my case, the non custodial parent is continuously, and voluntarily underemployed. My support and several months of arrearages were modified, is this legal? As well, I would like to know what I need to do to go about establishing a pattern of voluntary impoverishment. Can the courts make the non custodial parent obtain sufficient, full time employment? My support has already been modified once and under MD law, I may only recieve %65 of his disposable income, which is far less per month than my already modified order. Please help!!!!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: How retroactive can a modification be made?
If an arrearage amount has been established in a court proceeding, the amount should only be changed if it turns out later that it was erroneously calculated--e.g., amounts not previously credited to the payor should have been.
To establish that the payor is voluntarily impoverishing himself, you need to produce evidence that he has the experience and qualifications to be employed at a higher level than he is. If he's been a carpenter making $15/hr in the past but now works part time for $8/hr, and there are plenty of carpenter jobs available, that would be a good example of voluntary impoverishment.
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