Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: child support

The only way to reduce your child support obligation, whether temporarily or permanently, is to bring a motion requesting a modification of child support. The county child support office does not have any authority to modify or suspend your child support obligation, despite what you may be told. Only the court can order a change in child support.

I would suggest you promptly bring a motion to modify support, since the court cannot go "back in time" and make a retroactive modification of child support unless you have served a motion to modify support. Even then, the court can only go back to the date you first served and filed your motion.

This seems to be a source of confusion for many people, and perhaps this little "hypothetical" will help make the issue clear.

Let's suppose you lose your job (or any other source of income) in January, serve and file a motion to modify support six months later, in June, and then have a hearing on your motion in August. Even if it is absolutely clear you had no control over the loss of your job and had no income, the court cannot go back to January and forgive your arrears from January through June. Instead, all the court can do is go back to June, and forgive your arrears (if there were any) from June through August.

What this means is that you should serve and file a motion now. Even if you later go back to work or have some other source of income, at least you can request an order that will give you relief from this point forward.

Good luck.