Alabama CSE or me??

[ibcurious]

What is the name of your state? Alabama
I gave CSE the name and address of my ex's employer as well as his current address. He is $15,000 behind. My lawyer drew up a paper for income withholding and it was filed with my divorce papers for the court to hold until.....I suppose something else has to be done for them to send it out or do something with it. That is what I need help with. CSE has had my case for 2 years now and has not collected a dime on it. I gave them employment info etc. a few weeks ago and they haven't even resonded to me yet. Here they won't talk over the phone. I have to send a form to them (which I hand delivered) and they will not see you without an appointment, and good luck getting one. I can not afford a lawyer. What would I have to do to get this withholding order effective?? Or how long should I wait for CSE??

 

[keza]

Although I am from NY, the law may be a little different. 2years is way to long to wait. That is why they are there. Try and see if you qualfy through your state for legal aid. I know what it is like waiting for that money. Do whatever you can through your local court system and keep asking questions, too. If you have to call CSE evryday until they get the hint that enough is enough. I ended up doing that and it worked.

Good luck!

 

[ibcurious]

Thanks for posting.
Well, They don't accept phone calls....but I suppose I could send them a letter or 2 or 3 or 10 everyday! I just get so frustrated with them. I hand them all the info they need on a silver platter and they do NOTHING!
Al is a little backwards in the way that they do things. (thought west virginia was bad!) I'm really not sure what I have to do as far as going through the court myself (or how much it will cost).

 

[toasted]

Since you have some type of relationship with your divorce attorney, contact him and ask him why he held the papers out for income witholding and explain the situation. He may be able to steer you in the right direction or tell you what the problem is. You do need an attorney.

While its nice to assume you will get back owed support, as you are finding out sometimes just getting the current amount is a struggle in itself.

 

[lcollins]

If you send CSE any letters, start sending them certified so that you can prove when they received them, or if they refused them. Hand delivering is your word against theirs. You may also want to send a complaint to the Federal Child Support Office. Do you have your caseworker's name? Include that and any and all case numbers along with the NCP's name. In some cases, if you email them, they will send you the address of some places in your state that oversee CSE that you could write to.

 

[Jule]

Make them do their job!

ibcurious,
I had a support case in Ohio that would go absolutly nowhere, I regularly received notices from CSEA asking if I knew the whereabouts, employment, etc. I always provided the info, still no action, then one fine day while walking into work low and behold there was his face staring at me from a "MOST WANTED" poster, i had previously requested that he not appear on these posters so as not to humiliate my teenage son, but apparently that was irrelevant. Well this made me madder than the uncollected $17,000.00 so i began to write letters, 1 to the Goverenor, the Director of Human Services, all of my state reps, congressmen and women, right down to the county commissioners. Well within a week the elusive ex (who by the way had lived two miles from the CSEA office for at least three years) was in custody. At the hearing i think the CSEA attorney would have licked my feet to shut me up. Well to make this long story a little shorter my son is now 20 and I receive a weekly check like clockwork. He still owes me $7,000.00 so he truly got away with nothing just delayed the inevitable. Take a stand send letters to anyone associated with the government office not doing their job. Good luck! ( sorry for any typos, i have a broken hand)

 

[ibcurious]

You all will get a kick out of this one!!!

Well asuming that CSE will take another year to process the employment info that I gave them, I decided to try to talk to someone at the courthouse again for info on doing things myself. They once again told me to contact my lawyer and to tell them that I needed an affidavit to send out the withholding order that they are holding. Bingo! So I found out that at least I needed some kind of affidavit. By the way...I had contacted my lawyer, who practices in a different county, and she told me that I should just be able to go to the courthouse and hand them money and they would take care of it. I called the lawyer back today and told her that there was some affidavit that needed to be filled out and she HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!! She said that she would call the courthouse here and find out, and that if she didn't get a hold of me in a few days to call back. (this is where a cheap lawyer will get u) Been there...done that and it took 8 mos to get anywhere when she was doing our divorce. Anyway I did some more online research and think I found what I needed...a cs-22 withholding order payment of child support and a cs-32 affidavit for service of a withholding order. I think with these and a small fee I can get this done. Please let me know if I'm right or not or if I'm leaving something out.
Thank u all for responding so far.

 

[ibcurious]

Just to let u all know...I filed the cs-22 and cs-32 friday. The clerk would not tell me if that was the correct paperwork or not...I guess I'll find out after the judge sees them. It only costed me $7.50. Not bad at all. The clerk did tell me that if it wasn't what they needed they would let me know (as if she couldn't tell me right then) and I could "guess again" at no additional cost.
So ok if it's not right it's just more of a headache for them. Hopefully I'lll be getting somewhere very soon with this. I will post to tell weither or not that was correct so others will know.

 

[ibcurious]

BULLSEYE!!

I just wanted to post an update so someone else out there may benifit from the info.
I just recieved a copy of the withholding order that I filed, signed by the judge, along with a copy of the notice to employer (with resonse). They will begin deducting child support this friday!
So anyway, I guessed right on what to file. Reallly beats waiting for CSE.

 

[lcollins]

Congrats ibcurious! I'm glad things worked out without all the hassle. Feels good don't it??

 

[wmarge]

Ya know just a thought

it makes me soooo angry that we have to go through all of this crap just to get CS started! I had similar problems... dont we pay tax dollars to CSE(or CS-non enforcement)? arent they working for us? they act like they do us a favor just to answer the phone when we call! I dont get paid for doing THEIR job! I am so happy that you got all of your papers filed but should CSE have done that? I dont know it just makes me sooooo crazy! What the heck are we paying their salarys for with our tax dollars? I am not half as upset with my X deadbeat as I am with our CSE system! it totally needs to be reformed.... where the heck do ya start? OK I feel better! lol

 

[ibcurious]

LOL wmarge! I know we're not the only ones.
You know...maybe they should have hand outs to let people know what to file and how to do things on their own for several different circumstances. Then, at least people could get somewhere. Not all parents have access to the info they need or the time to find it. Once they approve someone for services, if there are any court costs etc. , there should be some kind of waiver for the fees. This would really solve a lot of problems. This is something I plan on suggesting in my complaint letters I will be sending out to child support and government offices.