Child Support
Child support amounts vary from state to state (and country to country). Make sure you are fully informed of what is expected and never agree to more, and do not sign any documents without fully reading them.
The amount of men who have signed away absurd amounts of their income to child support in an attempt to look like a great provider – in hopes to one day use that as a means to gain full custody of their children, something that never works as all they’ve done is established a new status quo with them being the financial backer to what basically amounts to another man’s family, the future step-dads – is astounding. Do not make this mistake, for the United States you can find up to date information here:
It is important to note that whatever is initially decided to be your child support payment cannot be retroactively reduced, meaning you need to put up your best fight for a fair support settlement during your initial divorce. This inability to have child-support payments reduced or forgiven is a relatively new one, first put into effect in 1986 with the Bradley Amendment.
This amendment stated that:
- An automatic non-expiring lean is triggered when child support payments become past due.
- It overrides any states statute of limitation, or juridical discretion.
- Requires payments to be maintained regardless of the physical capability of the person owing the support payments.
The last point is especially important to understand because it in a very real sense means that no matter what happens to you, you are still expected to pay.
This is how we end up with situations like the one that befell Bobby Sherrill, a North Carolina man who when working in Kuwait was captured and held prisoner for five months as an Iraqi Hostage. Upon finally being released he found his freedom short-lived as he was arrested for not paying $1,425 in child support while he was a hostage.
There is also the story of Clarence Brandley, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1980 he was finally released in 1990, now exonerated for the crime he’d been accused of, he was probably happy to hear he owed $50,000 in child support payments. Since being released from prison he has lived a life of virtual slavery with his wages being garnished and only the bare-minimum left to him so that he can survive and keep working and keep paying money, as of 2009 he was still in significant debt and had recently lost his job, house, and car. Better luck in the next life, Mr. Brandley.
This type of thing happens all the time, it doesn’t matter if you’re in a coma or statutorily raped by an older woman. Seriously, “In California, an appeals court upheld an order (San Luis Obispo Count y v. Nathan J., 1996) forcing a 15 year old boy to pay child support to his rapist after she became pregnant and gave birth.” (You can read more about the issue of rape victims being forced to financially support their rapists here: A Voice For Men.)
The most important take away for you is that you need to be fully informed of what your state’s (Country, etc.) currents laws are regarding support payments and to not agree to something you deem is unfair without fighting it the best you can in the first round because they will collect the money no matter what.
The final, and most distressing, aspect of child support is that the person collecting the support payment (usually the mother), does not have to prove in any way that the money is going to the child. The person collecting the money is free to spend it on whatever they want. In some cases you may even be required to pay additional “special extraordinary expenses” because they wasted the child support money on something else, these special expenses could be something like daycare costs; this is where you are forced to pay to have someone else raise your child because your spouse is unable to and won’t let you.
Even if you never get to see your own children, you may still have to make support payments. Failure to make payments can result in everything from garnished wages, your driver’s license being revoked, and as you saw in the examples above: jail time. This nightmare can even happen when the children aren’t even yours.
Other countries have implemented similar laws to the Bradley Amendment, specifically both Australian and Canadian child-support laws are based around the same principles. This is not a U.S. only issue. As with everything, legislature is always changing, be sure to be as informed as possible on the current laws regarding child support in your area.
