Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico
I have been divorced from my ex-wife for 20 years. Our children are 24 and 25. She is not getting a long with our daughter and blames me. She now says she is going to take me to court for back child support. I was under the impression that after 18 a child is considered an adult and she can no longer do this. What do I need to do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
You need to go sit down with a lawyer and answer some detailed questions. First, you do not say if you had a child support order. Nor do you say when you obtained the order. Nor do you say if you were ordered to pay child support. Nor do you say if you paid child support or if you were behind and some amount was due and owing when your children achieved the age of majority. You also do not say whether you agreed to pay any post majority support. All of these questions and a few more will need to be answered by you with an attorney before anyone can tell you that she can or cannot take you back to court.
If you do not know an attorney then ask any of your friends if they know the name of an attorney in your town who they used and trust. If you don't get an answer that way then look in the yellow pages or do an online search. You can also go to the NM state bar association web site and there is a two stage referral process there.
Good luck.
Law Guru
I agree with all the above. I would add just for your information that if a valid child support order was in place each payment missed constitutes a judgment that in New Mexico is considered to be good for 12 years from the date it was due. That means that in principle the most she could get from you would be the child support owed for the payments going back to a maximum of 12 years from the day she files the claim.