lowering child support

[mightydog29]

no money to live help

What is the name of your state? NJ. when I was divorced I did not have an apartment or phone bills and many other expenses because I thought we were on a break and was staying with a family member. now that I have all of these monthly payments, is there any way to have the child support lowered now that my ex-wife is living with another man in his house and doesn't have her name on the mortgage or pay any other house bills? she had rent payments and many other expenses at the time of the divorce. with the amount that I pay her I can bearly afford to do decent food shopping every month. please any help would be great. maybe I should clarify: she said she needed time to think about our marriage and needed about a week or two so I went to my sisters house. and gave her the money for the bills. I went to see my kids without calling first and found another man in our bedroom with her and he wasn't sleeping...so therefore i was not returing to the household. I continued to pay the bills because of the kids and filed for divorce but during the time in between she had moved with the guy to a new place and had a higher rent payment than we were paying also when we went to court i was still with my sister. the court didn't recognize that I had been paying all her bills only that i didn't really have any living expenses so now i have a large payment and can not really afford anything. and I am not talking about fun stuff I mean normal bills will they take it into consideration that I now have all these living expenses and lower my payment. sorry this got a little long

 

[VeronicaGia]

The court doesn't take rent, utilities, car payments, etc., into consideration when figuring support. The court only cares about income. The court couldn't care less if you were living in a cardboard box as long as you pay up.

Sorry, but that's how it is. Also, her new boyfriend is not legally responsible to support a child that isn't his.

 

[mightydog29]

also when we were divorced I was making $50,000 a year but that was because I was doing 80 hours a week every week. now that I have a new job, and have been at this new job for more than two years and can't work the same amount of overtime. I now make $30,000 a year and I know that she was working part time when we settled but now works full time at a better paying job. does this make any difference now that my gross has gone down and hers is up?

 

[LdiJ]

also when we were divorced I was making $50,000 a year but that was because I was doing 80 hours a week every week. now that I have a new job, and have been at this new job for more than two years and can't work the same amount of overtime. I now make $30,000 a year and I know that she was working part time when we settled but now works full time at a better paying job. does this make any difference now that my gross has gone down and hers is up?

Those are signficant changes and are valid reasons to file for a child support reduction.

 

[mightydog29]

thank you very much for your help

 

[mightydog29]

child worksheet

I thought that they would look at expenses. because when they were deciding the amount they had me do a child worksheet. and at that time I didn't even have the basic expenses of rent and utilites. please don't get me wrong my children are borderline spoiled by their mother. they can not leave the house with out a ralph lauren something on, in other words they are very far from poverty. but I on the other hand have a hard time trying to do anything with them, let alone getting a two bedroom apt so they can have their on room. right now they have to sleep on the sofa bed.

 

[haiku]

That's not entirely true. In my case, the court did look at rent, utilities, car payments, etc.

they ask for these things standard in your expense report, but I don't know of any state that uses them when actually figuring the support amount.

 

[mightydog29]

to get this lowered should I get a lawyer or can I just go by myself

 

[VeronicaGia]

to get this lowered should I get a lawyer or can I just go by myself

If you can afford an attorney, it is definitely your best bet to retain one for the modification.

 

[VeronicaGia]

That's not entirely true. In my case, the court did look at rent, utilities, car payments, etc.

Just because they ask for this information doesn't mean they take it into consideration. They ask for it to see if you're living beyond your means or lying about your financial situation. For instance, say you make $8.00 an hour and you live alone, but you say that your house payment is $1200 a month. Big red flags go off and the judge knows you're lying about your income or you're lying about your house payment.

Believe me, the judge doesn't care. CS is based on income and in many states, visitation time.

 

[mightydog29]

thank you for all your help