Legal Question in Family Law in New York

College expenses

My son will be attending college in his senior year of high school.There are no grants which he is eligable for. I therefore have to pay to send him.I recieve child support for him.I have asked if I could take his father back to court to ask for a contribution to his college expenses.I was told to hire a good lawyer since there is nothing in our divorce regarding college expenses.I am not in the postion to hire an attorney and if I was I would just pay his way to college and let well enough alone.My question is if I file a modification which there was one that was done in Oct. of 2004 for support as my son lived with his dad for a year and came back to live with me. Would my son be able to go into the court room with me or is there any way he(my son)could do his own petition with me as gaurdian. He is 17. He has asked his father to help and his response is I pay child support and thats all your getting.His father makes 50,000.00 a year and I make 14,000.00.Plus he owns his own business for which I was unware of until recently. I'm sure the business is in his wife's name so I don't know what I can do if anything.My son is a high honor role student and it doesn't seem fair to deny him the right to go to college.Help! Thank You


Asked on 7/13/05, 6:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John O'Donnell Attorney at Law

Re: College expenses

You can certainly ask for a modification; unless you can think of a reason in your case not to. Your success will largely depend on the facts and circumstances of your case.

I cannot understand why your son is not eligible for grants or tuition reductions in light of your $14,000 salary. You may want to look into that further. In addition, you may want to consider student loans. Payments are deferred until graduation. At that point, your son may have a decent job that will enable him to pay back the loans.

In any event, good luck.

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Answered on 7/13/05, 7:19 pm


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