Ask the experts… child support payments from a very old case…
Question…
I am hoping that you can help me. I am currently residing in the state of Oregon and I am 41 years old. I was recently contacted by my biological father via his 4th wife through facebook. He and my mother divorced when I was quite young. He was ordered to pay child support and did send a few checks to my mother (who is still currently residing in California. My mother re-married in 1985 (i believe). My mother and Step father did take my biological father to court a couple of times to get child support money from him when he stopped sending checks and again was ordered to pay, with only a check or 2 being sent and then nothing more.
My question is, Is there something I can do now to obtain the back payments he owed to myself and my sister (who still resides in California), and if so how/where can i begin looking for further information on the subject – or get paperwork started.
Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.
Sherry L.
Oregon
Our Answer…
Hi Sherry…
Thank you for the email and question. There is no short answer to your question since there are many factors that would need to be discussed. I can provide some guidelines on what can be done to collect:
If the order is from California, there is no statute of limitation, meaning, California child support is owed until it’s paid. What’s important to remember is that while the support is owed, we would need to find or have income to attach to and collect from. We would also need to be determined if any support is owed to the state for assistance provided to your Mom. Child support is owed to the custodial parent or guardian for the care of the children. If we were to try and assist, it would be necessary to have an agreement for service with your Mom. Even though you and your sister are adults, the funds are due to Mom. Based on the info you have provided, it may be necessary to attach to social security income which would require some legal work done for the case, again this is just a basic assessment since we have not seen the order or know the detail of the case.
If your Mom is in agreement, I’d be happy to discuss the case and the possibility of collection with you and your Mom. We would need a copy of all judge signed court orders and the payment history to get started, If you don’t have these, the Clerk of the Court for the county that issued the order would be a good place to start the process and get the documents. Please let me know if you would like to chat and we can see what we can go from there! We’re ready to get started collecting your unpaid child support.