Child Support Questions

[TryingVeryHard]

He was young and afraid. He does not speak English very good. He appeared in court and without 100% guarantee that the child was his, he still agreed to paying weekly support.

The lady went with another guy who asked him if he can adopt the kid. He agreed. Now, this family is nowhere to be found. He is clueless where his kid is, and where the mother is. But he one thing is for sure, they left scar to his credit report.

The Social Service said they have no documentation of adoption. And that he is responsible for the 7000+ support and fees.

Questions:

1. Does child support "report" expires. Like the usual credit card record which expires in 7+ yrs?

2. It is indicated in the TU report that the estimated date that this tradeline will be remove is 05/08, should he wait or start paying again?

3. What is the best course of action that you can give us.

It is my belief that this entry is a form of judgment. Is it not?

Thank you guys.

[fishbjc]

Child Support Never Expires.  He's required to pay that debt.

If he signed over his parental rights, there would have been paperwork that would have had to be signed and filed with the court systems.  Apparently this was not the case.

He needs to seek legal aid to find a course of action. 

[TryingVeryHard]

I will advise him that. By the way, is it too late to question the paternity? That is, if my friend wants to subject himself to DNA test, is it too late you think? He wants to contact this lady but dont know the address now. Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous]

No it's not too late to ask for a paternity the question is that if that child is found to be not his, he may still have to pay chid support.

[fishbjc]

He definitely needs the help of legal aid.  I have heard of instances where the father claimed paternity, this was found to not be the case, yet the father had to continue to pay child support because he signed the birth certificate.

Your friend certainly doesn't want to see his photo on a billboard somewhere.

I can understand his frustration.  First the child needs to be found, which shouldn't be too difficult to do.  The mother must have a social security number on file which should lead to her whereabouts.

I wouldn't fool around with this, he needs someone to help him legally or he'll never be out of the hole.   My sister applied for public aid; her old boyfriend was found and a dna test was ordered.  If he didn't comply, he would have been ordered to pay child support by default. 

[Anonymous]

Ok, I actually have experience through this.  

First thing,  how old was the child when this supposedly happen -  looking at his post by you it looks like this went on his report in 1999, then is says further down that he owed 6026 in 11/2006, which looks like it went up since 11/2006 to last report of 12/2007 - figuring up 265 per month, it looks like he is about 28 months past due.  This could have been child support that was due prior to the adoption.

First, he needs to contact social service and see exactly what months of child support is due.   LEGALLY, if he is still the father of the child,then it looks as though he would owe about 3180 every year in child support, so if this is from a long time ago, he would owe a lot more than 7666.

If your friend gave the child up for adoption there will be no open court records. ALL ADOPTIONS ARE SEALED BY THE COURT, so if he has no paperwork of the adoption, going to the court house will not help him.   (my children are adopted by my present husband and I cannot get any papers regarding there adoption because they are sealed).

If the child was adopted and this was money owed prior to the adoption, then he is no longer legally responsible for this money.  He will need to provide this information to the social services office.  

He can, however, go to the office of Vital statistics and try to get a birth certificate on the child by providing his identity.  If the child was legally adopted then the original birth certificate is sealed and cannot be obtained, and the child's adopted fahter will be listed as the father, so therefore, there will be no record of his name on the birth certificate.  So, if he is unsure as to whether the child was legally adopted or not, this is a way he can find out. 

I doubt he has the child's social security number and so going to the social security office is not really going to help unless he has the child's birth certificate with him. 

My children were adopted by my present husband in 2001.  My ex-husband was about 10,000 behind in child support.  When he signed over his rights and my husband did the adoption, all past due money was then void and he was no longer responsible to pay this amount.

[fishbjc]

I found this on a legal board.

In many states, your ex-husband has no obligation to support your son after the adoption. However, the adoption normally wouldn't alter any child support arrearage that accumulated before the adoption, so your ex-husband would still be liable for support that was unpaid prior to the adoption.

The adoption terminates the legal relationship between the parent and the child, and creates a legal relationship between the adoptive parent and the child. It is that relationship which is the source of the obligation to pay support.

[Anonymous]

In the state of Lousiana where I live, after the adoption of my children, my ex-husband was not responsible for the 10,000 dollars that was owed in back support and I was told of that by the Department of Family Social Services prior to this adoption.

My ex-husband had to be counseled on his rights of "giving his children up", as well as my present husband had to be counseled on the adoption.

Also, the state of Lousiana makes you go through a family and individual counseling assessment by the state and they have to sign that it is in the best interest of the children to alllow the adoption before a Judge will sign the adoption papers. 

This is like at 3 month process, not something that happens in a few days.

Does your friend remember doing any of this.