Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee

Re: where is the girl? No visitation but $$$$

All people must comply with child support orders. All court orders, in fact. The Mother had no right to say she did not want the support. The support was for the child. Under Tennessee law, the court has no right to retroactively modify (i.e. reduce or eliminate)the previous court order. If he is $31,000 behind in child support, he owes it and there is not much he can do about it. Generally, in situations like this, the question is how he is going to pay it back.

With all this said, I have no idea what "agency" has contacted him. Has a lawyer written? Has he been served with a contempt petition? Is it really an agency or is it some company that is trying to intimidate your husband so he will turn over a large sum of money so the company can get a fee?

The visitation issue is important, but not related to the support issue. If he wanted visitation, he should have sought it and he should still seek it. But he is going to owe child support whether he chooses to visit her or not. In fact, under Tennessee law, he owes more child support where he does not have regular visitation.

If there is a case pending, you should contact an attorney in that area for advice.

Best of luck.

Re: where is the girl? No visitation but $$$$

I couldn't agree more than with the previous response. What does the Court Order say. If he owes the money, then he owes it. If he is entitled to visitation then he should exercise that right. If there is not Court Order then you should get one. Not sure what the "agency" is. Have an attorney look at the documents you received. Good Luck and feel free to contact me.

Re: where is the girl? No visitation but $$$$

Your husband should definitely take the correspondence he received to an attorney. He owes the money and can probably negotiate a payment plan. I would be interested in knowing which agency the letter came from. If it came from the local IV-D child support office, you can probably work with them. If it came from SupportKids or another private for-profit agnecy, you may have more trouble. If he has property or a retirement plan, they may try to seize it, so act on this soon. As far as the visitation is concerned, if he has visitation ordered, he should exercise it. If mom refuses and has a professional license, there are legal steps that can be taken to suspend the license. See a lawyer about that, too. It's best for the child if the parents work this out amicably, if possible, because kids are often made to feel "guilty" about one parent punishing the other, even when they aren't directly involved in the transactions. Kids know what's going on.