Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
My husband lives in VA. His ex-wife in TX. He has one child under 18 he has been paying child support on. He was out of work for over a year at one time and got behind in payments. For the past 8 years he has been paying extra support payments, the court ordered payments, and lots of interest. He recently found out by accident that his daughter has been married since January 2009. The ex-wife did not notify the court. So my husband has been paying about 16 months worth of child support that wasn't due. Not to mention all the interest that keeps piling up. He contacted the Texas child support people and they said they would look into it. That was three weeks ago. We can't afford to leave work and go to Texas. We can't afford an attorney. Is there anything we can do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
He should sue the ex-wife (in a Texas Court) and allege fraud, and ask for punitive damages (why not?). Most of this can be done long-distance, that is, without Dad having to get on an airplane.
He should name the Attorney General as a party.
He will need a lawyer to get this done.
The father is going to need to hire a TX lawyer to determine how much money he actually owes. The TX A G is not going to agree to stop the child support. You need an experienced family law attorney in the county where the case is placed. Unfortunately, I strongly urge you to retain the services of an attorney.
You can try to do it yourself, but don't be surprised if the TX A G "loses" your paperwork. If you talk to anyone on the phone, don't expect them to do anything! You are talking to support staff and they are not attorneys. They are not authorized to do anything! You are wasting your time!
If you try to do it yourself, you need to send all paperwork, certified mail, return receipt requested. Make sure to make copies of everything you send to them.
Be prepared to send the paperwork to them EVERY month.
You will need to prove that the date the daughter married. You should be able to do that with a certified copy of her marriage licence. You should be able to order that over the internet. I assume you can do that without an attorney.
DO NOT EXPECT THE TX A G OFFICE TO ACTUALLY HELP YOU!
You owe 6% interest each month on any past-due child support that is owed. That 6% interest really adds up. Eventually, you are paying interest on interest.
If you talk to anyone in the TX A G office, get the person's name. Then follow up with a letter in writing, again cert. mail, return receipt requested.
Yes, it's going to cost you a lot of money and time.
I had one man actually prove that he'd paid the $100,000 that the TX A G said he owed! One man in my 20 years of practice. He was a former bank president and he had copies of every check he'd ever written. It only took him 5 years to do it. He documented everything.
You can certainly try to sue the TX A G as a party as Mark Dunn suggested -- but I don't think it's worth it.
If your case is in the Houston area, I offer telephone consultations for $2 per minute. You can email me at [email protected]
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