Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Re: Child support order

The court order was not modified, and your out-of-court agreement is not enforceable. The judge, will not, however, be disposed to look favorably on any effort to deny the obvious arrangement.

You can file for a modification, assuming that his income has increased sufficiently.

You can enforce the full amount owed under the order with both children in your care, and seek an increase; but I do not suggest trying to get back support when he was caring for one of the children.

Re: Child support order

I usually insert language in a divorce decree that there is no credit for informal support, meaning that all payments need to go through the Attorney General's State Disbursement Unit in order to count as payment of court ordered child support. This is to protect both parties in a case like this. You might check your decree or the prior modifications to see if you have a similar provision.

That being said, if there has been a change in the circumstances of any of the parties, such as an increase in your ex-husband's income, you would most likely come out ahead by getting an attorney to do a modification for you. Since it has been six years since your last mod, there is a good chance that the guidelines would support your claim for increased child support.