Help court date tomorrow

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

I have a child support court date tomorrow with Judge Worley regarding reducing child support initiated by my ex. Both my ex husband and I are attending Pro-se. He is trying to to reduce child support due to the fact that one of my children has recently turned 18. My ex started out in arrears of 9000.00 and it is now 6800.00 in arrears. He has been making payments of 150.00 monthly wihich is withdrawn from the courts from his salary towards arrears. Do I have the right myself to go in tomorrow and ask the judge to not reduce the child support until all arrears are paid off? He has paid the same amount for the last 2 years and has the ability to continue. Also, I have continued this case already once because my child was not yet 18 at the time of the court date. Do you think the judge would grant another continuance if I went in and asked so that I could get legal counsel? Thanks

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Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:30 am

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Whether the other party has a right to modify child support depends on whether there has been a substantial change in circumstances. If he can prove this, the court will usually look at the evidence presented and compute a new child support obligation based on the child support guidelines. Whether a party has paid back all arrearages is not a reason for a judge to deny a motion to modify.

Frequently, judges do allow continuances to obtain counsel, but It really depends on how long you have known about the court date and whether you have previously been given a continuance for this reason.