Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

Re: child support

It's hard for me to understand your question. I think you said that while he had custody you never paid any child support, but were you ordered to pay support during that time? If you were you are liable for arrears. You can ask the court to modify the child support order because of being out of work but the order holds unless you get the judge to change it.

I think you said that since you were granted custody in 2008 the court awarded you child support, and the dad is now trying to offset it by getting credit for what your arrears were, and then the Judge ordered no arrears. But now you say the judge has changed his mind.

Well It's hard to say for sure how the judge will proceed from here. Likely he will demand a complete accounting to bring any arrearages up to date, possibly taking into account your disability. Once he's calculated who owes who how much he will then require the dad to pay child support from there on out.

That's a best guess, based on what I think you've told me. If I were doing this that's how I would proceed until I learned somethig different. A lot depends on your particulr circumstances and your ex's finances.

Ask the Judge for a mediation with a child support officer, or better yet just go the courthouse and find the child support section and ask for a mediation session, they can work it out with you and your ex and present a package, probably in the form of a new parenting plan, to the judge.