Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina
Back child support
My ex and I divorced in 1994, In dec of 1996 he had my parental rights terminated and the paper work states that it ends all rights and obligations. But the child support had continued to accumulate. The children were adopted by the step mother in 2000. The children now 16 and 18 have contacted me with out their father knowing, he found out. I was planning to go see them but he says that if I come anywhere close he will have me arrested for the unpaid support. And I was told that he could even have me extradidted from Kentucky where I now live if he really wanted to push the issue. Is this possible and where do I need to start to resolve the problem. At the time of the divorce I did not have an attorney, and he was threating me that If I tried to get custody he would make my life Hell. Also in 2000 I hired an attorney in Durham to handle this case for me, I paid him $3000 and obviously he did not do what he was hired to do. When I contacted him about this all he said was that we used that money up with ''all of that stuff that we did'' , How do I find out if he actually did anything on the case, and if he did nothing am I entitled to a refund of my money.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Back child support
I cannot answer to specifics about North Carolina law and hopefully someone from there will answer your question also. I can give some general principles based on kentucky law.
Your child support obligation should not have continued to accumulate. When the termination occurred, no new obligations should have accrued. If it did, then the child support authority did not receive notice. Pre-existing child support would still be due and owing.
Based on what you have said, you have no right to contact the children and it could lead to criminal sanctions if you pursued it, such a custodial interference.
Extradition is a matter up to the prosecutor and is not within the control of your ex-husband. Depending on how much child support is owed, it may be a risk.
Regarding the lawyer you paid, if it were a Kentucky lawyer I would suggest contacting the Kentucky Bar Association and talking to them about the behavior and file a complaint. You should be given copies of what the attorney did to justify the charges. I suspect the same process is available in North Carolina.
If you want the child support issue resolved, contact the North Carolina authority and start paying on the arrearages and provide them with the termination orders to make sure you only owe pre-existing arrearages. Do not go to North Carolina or provide a Kentucky address until you have an agreement with North Carolina. If you can afford an attorney, at least consult face to face with one going over all the details.
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