Family Attorney Marsha Freeman: 'The System is Broken'

foundit66 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-03-2009, 09:21 PM

Quote:

John Nelson went from six-figure-earning software exectutive to unemployed overnight. But his $2,200 child support payment didn't change that quickly. It took a year for him to get a hearing, and when he finally did, the judge increased his obligation. By that time he had gotten a job as a science teacher, but the newly-upped child support obligation meant that he took home a grand total of $58 per week.

The judge, Julian Piggotte's attitude was you "can afford it; figure it out." Then she discovered that she had a conflict of interest in Nelson's case and withdrew.

His ex-wife sees the situation this way:

"Our lives go on. The kids still have lunches, they still go to school, and they still have field trips."

That's true. And if she and John were still together, the kids would need to be fed and go to school, but their standard of living would drop along with that of their parents. That's what happens when parents lose their jobs - parents and children live on less. They all manage the best they can. It's one of the sometimes-harsh realities of daily life.

Only if the parents are divorced does the concept arise that the children's lives must in no way change due to a parent's loss of income. It's as if Judge Piggotte lives in a fantasy world in which children must and do remain unaffected when their father loses his job. Indeed, it's the same fantasy world in which an adult can live on $58 per week.

Nelson's case is like countless others these days. Some 80% of job losses have been suffered by men in the last year or so. A lot of those guys are fathers, some of them divorced. That means they have to file for a modification of their support orders.

It's another strange aspect of the whole matter that, if Nelson's wife had wanted a temporary restraining order against him, she could have gotten a hearing and had an order issued in a matter of hours. But when he loses his job and needs to reduce his child support to reflect what he can actually pay, it takes over a year.

GlennSacks.com Blog Archive Family Attorney Marsha Freeman: 'The System is Broken'

I don't know how prevalent this problem is, but this is definitely not the first time I've heard this type of scenario.
It boggles my mind, like logic and rationality has left the building and taken most of your stuff with it...

I can't help but wonder how many fathers classified as "dead-beat dads" fall into this category...

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 12-04-2009, 05:13 AM

Child support reduction is very tough. And you have to hire a lawyer to even begin the process!

jabbo · #3 (**permalink**) 12-04-2009, 07:17 AM

The system is definitely screwed up. I can understand not reducing child support if the father quits his job or gets fired for cause, but treating those instances the same as losing one's job because of a downturn in the economy is just mindless - and a mindless judge is like a car with no steering wheel.

faithful_servant · #4 (**permalink**) 12-04-2009, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

Child support reduction is very tough. And you have to hire a lawyer to even begin the process!

In Oregon you can request a review every two years and have the CS adjusted as necessary. We've been paying my wife's ex for the last three years while the scumbag lives in Cent. America and we've had her son here with us. When the two year review time came up, we made a phone call and explained the situation and the CS is now dropped completely. What sicks is that if was had gone back to court and fought this almost two years ago when Travis came back to live with us, it would have cost us more than the CS we've paid since then.

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