Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon
My husband has been told by the state of Oregon that he must pay child support for his 19 year old daughter while she is in college, including summer vacations, until she is 21 years old. We have no knowledge of any order declaring this yet the state child support lady tells us this is the law. How can this be? If he were married to the Mother of this girl and they couldn't afford to pay for her they would not be forced to. How is it that they can force him to pay for this child? He says he is afraid to make waves because they will make him pay more, I'm tired of forking out big money for a daughter who doesn't use his last name, doesn't call him Dad, won't talk to him, and doesn't care a fig for him. It seems that the rest of us in this family have to scrimp so that she can go to college, it doesn't seem very fair to me or legal. Is it?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Yes, I agree. Pretty outrageous, in my opinion. And unconstitutional, as well, since it violates the principle of equal application of the law by imposing a obligation on divorced and never married parents, while giving an immunity to married parents. I even got a judge in Multnomah County to agree with me about that in 1997. But the Oregon Supreme Court then reversed the trial judge's decision and held the law as constitutional.
Read your husband's divorce decree. I suspect the child support provision says he must pay support until the child is 18, AND THEREAFTER UNTIL AGE 21 if and so long as the child is a "child attending school" as defined in ORS 107.108.
ORS 107.108 defined "child attending school" as including a child 18 or over but under 21 who is unmarriage and who is attending school, college, university, etc.
To see how this stupid and unfair law works, take a look at the case of Sandlin and Sandlin, online at:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17896018095767091090
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