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Dealing with DHS - questioning court order

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What is the name of your state? ME

I have a court order that was not signed by the judge until about 9 months after we actually went to court. I had to have the order sent to DHS three times, they said that they never received it. This was three years ago. The issue I'm having today is that DHS is changing the date as to when the arrearage that was calculated is effective from. Here's the problem. For approximately 2 years, we had to figure out what the child support amount was that my ex was supposed to be paying, vs. what he actually paid, and it worked out to be over $5000 - to be accomodating, I had settled on $4000. That was written into our actual court order amendment, that as of date "A" (when we actually went to court) the arrearage amount was $4000. The problem is, that the actual court order was not signed by the judge until a later date, Date "B". The Child Support Order, which was signed the same day as the court order (Date "B"), has the arrearage set at $4000 still, which is not the problem. The issue is that now, DHS is saying that they won't go by the Date "B" on the Child Support Order, they are saying that they are going by the date "A" that is stated within the court order. They should be going by the amount listed on the Child Support Order, which states the amount of the arrearage at Date B.

I am not sure how to correct this, as their system is now saying that my ex has overpaid child support by over $1000 - when, actually, it should be current now. This is effecting what I am getting paid now, as they are holding some amount of support as "future support". I tried sending them a letter with the calculations, as well as copies of the court order/child support order which states the amount of arrearage, signed on Date B by the judge, but they are refusing to go by that date. I am not sure how to procede, do I have to bring my ex back to court to get this cleared up, or what? DHS has told me that unless a judge says otherwise, their calculations are from the Date A, not Date B. This doesn't really have anything to do with my Ex, it's with DHS - the state agency handling the collections and dispursements of the child support.
 


CJane

Senior Member
Honestly, if it's a difference of only $1000, I'd let it go. It's likely to cost you far more than that in time, effort, and possible attorney's fees trying to collect it.

Yes, it SEEMS like a big deal, I know. But it's just not worth it to deal with DHS if you don't absolutely HAVE to.
 
Honestly, if it's a difference of only $1000, I'd let it go. It's likely to cost you far more than that in time, effort, and possible attorney's fees trying to collect it.

Yes, it SEEMS like a big deal, I know. But it's just not worth it to deal with DHS if you don't absolutely HAVE to.


It ends up being almost $2000 that they are saying that my ex overpaid...I know it seems like chump change in the whole scheme of things, but the issue that I'm having is that DHS is actually holding parts of my weekly child support because of this - and he already got a huge reduction for his travel expenses because he chose to double his distance from our kids. As it is, the child support he pays barely covers his portion of child care and school expenses...forget about it covering any day to day living expenses. I just bought a new home, and the expenses that I have currently (although they will be reduced soon) makes it hard to supply everything for the kids without the child support.

I know that I shouldn't be relying on it, that I should count it as extra, but right now, I can't. Hopefully soon I'll be at a point where it doesn't matter if it comes in or not.
 

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