Child Support – One Opinion

At the time one’s divorce is imminent, often two main concerns are obviously going to be child support and child custody. It is reasonable to conclude that in many cases, the fights over child support are not rooted in making sure that the children’s needs...

NH: Thomas James Ball Burns to Death on Courthouse Steps

A tragedy of epic proportions took place this past week at the Cheshire County, New Hampshire Courthouse.  Thomas James Ball set himself ablaze, committing suicide, presumably due to being despondent after many years enduring a protracted high-conflict divorce, child...

SC: Non-Custodial Parents & College Tuition

Dateline: April 2011. There was once a time when many states had on their child support statutes a provision that allowed them to require non-custodial parents to pay their child’s college tuition, in part or in whole, as part of their child custody cases. This...

SC: Beaufort County Clerk & Stolen Child Support Enforcement Money

In keeping with the recent spate of theft of child support related funds by those charged with overseeing the massive cash pile, comes a story out of South Carolina. Elizabeth Smith, now “former” Beaufort County Clerk of Courts, has agreed to plead guilty...

TX: Attorney General’s Child Support Division Corruption

With the gargantuan size of the child support industry, it almost goes without saying that the system has plenty of people who would seek to take advantage of the flood of money that flows through child support collections offices. One of several recent reports...

IA: Iowa Public Child Support Forums to be Held

Mark the dates! Please attend if you can. Every four years, it is a legal requirement that the state of Iowa review its child support guidelines.  That time has arrived in 2011.  The Iowa Child Support Advisory Commission is holding the first in a series of three town...

Child Support Collections Likely Fall Again in 2010

In 2009, child support payments and collections fell for the first time in 30-years within the worst economy in decades.  While the statistics for 2010 have yet to be released, it’s very likely that child support payments fell again last year. Contributing to...

MA: Courts Must Approve Changes in Child Support

In yet another in a long line of examples of the government wielding its power to nonsensically invade people’s private lives for the sole purpose of unnecessarily making them more difficult – the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that cooperating parents...

Financial Devastation Caused by Divorce: The College Fund

It almost goes without saying that the children of divorce are significantly less likely to receive continuing education financial assistance from their parents that those who remain in intact families.  The latest study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and...

Accountability for Child Support Payments

One of the chief complaints we often hear from child support payors is that they pay too much.  From payees, we hear that they get too little.  From the payors, it’s that there is no accounting for what their often substantial child support payments go towards. ...