Child support

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

Dear sarah m:

Greetings. Let’s answer these questions:

  1. Yes. I think that the North Carolina Child Support Enforcement is either free or very low cost. If you hire an attorney, it will cost more. Did you do your divorce on a fixed fee rate with an attorney or did you pay hourly? Also, did that include going to court?

  2. With just the NC Child Support Enforcement Agency, I think that the fee is about $25.00 or slightly more. With an attorney it will likely be a couple of thousand, especially if you have income imputed to you.

  3. Yes, he can request visitation, although I would hope that would not be to use the child as a pawn. All children are under the jurisdiction of the court until they are 18 years of age, unless they are emancipated sooner. Of course you can ask a judge to hear from the child, although that may not be in the child’s best interest, but the judge may decline. Best of luck.

Janet L. Fritts
Attorney with Rosen Divorce
4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 500
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
RosenDivorce.com
919-787-6668

The response posted above is based upon the limited factual information made available and is not intended as a full and complete response to the question. The only reliable manner to obtain complete and adequate legal advice is to consult with an attorney, fully explain your situation, and allow the attorney sufficient opportunity to research the applicable law and facts required to render an accurate opinion. The basic information provided above is intended as a public service but a full discussion with an attorney should be undertaken before taking any action.

2

Thank you for your answers to my previous questions. The other question that I now have is :

Yes my daughter has attended private school from kindergarten until now. She plans to attend through high school. . I have never asked for child support to be refigured or for private school tuition to be considered as we separated when she was 3 1/2 months old. However, based on the fact that he is contacting me requesting that he have child support refigured. I have done as he requested and placed all of his supplied numbers as well as mine on rosen.com child support calculator.

Sorry for running on so long but , I wanted to understand based on my circumstances. He states that he expected child support to go down based on his assumption that my salary was 20-25,000 higher than it is . I am working very parttime as my 3 1/2 year old son has had extensive medical problems requiring either my husband or myself to be home. Therefore, with my current salary which has not changed in 3 1/2 years, the child support is recalculated to increase. He states that he can’t pay anymore and refuses to.

  1. If we go to court, is there a good chance that the judge will include private school tuition as an extraordinary expense as well as raise the child support.

If we need to go to court to do this, how expensive is this. We are on a very limited budget and inlight of my divorce which was in excess of 30,000, I am concerned that It would be very expensive.

  1. I realize that you can’t give me an exact amount but what kind of expense might I be looking at.

  2. Also he has not visited with my daughter since she was 5. She is almost 13. This was his choice. Can he now use her as a pawn and insist on his visitation. Does she have any say in this matter

Thank you for your time.