Scenario: I am not represented by an attorney, have a court date to modify my child support as no longer self employed due to the economy & since I could not find either full or part time employment I went back to college, currently enrolled/attending fulltime. I have never requested to modify my child support in 14 yrs the order has been in effect- child support is current and has always been current.
Prior to initial court date 9/10 I recvd a subpoena requesting my 2008 & 2009 taxes, bank statements, self employment wages, proof of my expenses for family vacations etc. for the past 3 yrs of which i produced all to plaintiffs attorney upon initial court date only to have her attorney postpone until this month unless I wanted to settle outside of court, which I did not. I sent a counter subpoena which they recvd 10/4/10, 10 days prior to the upcoming court date 10/15/10 requesting the same information from her, 2008 & 2009 income taxes, all paystubs 1/1/10 to present, bank statements 1/1/10 to present and proof of how she spent child support for my son from 1/1/08 to present to include clothing, shoes, groceries, etc. Today, 10/9/10 I received an objection to subpoena in regular mail pertaining to her disclosing documents & reciepts of how child support money has been spent stating that neither party requested a deviation from the North Carolina Child Support Guidelines and my request was irrelevant & excessive.
Question #1: Isn’t the custodial parent supposed to keep track of how child support is spent for the minor child? Can I object their objection to provide verification of how she has spent child support on my son? I don’t see how this request is considered irrelevant and excessive when my ex claims her needs for my son have increased and yet I’m always buying his clothing & shoes as he doen’t have any and of course everything we buy him he takes back home because he doesn’t have anything there. I want to make sure he has what he needs and or things he wants like any “normal teenager”. (I have receipts for all my purchases for him) She should easily be able to go through her bank statements/checkbook for documentation of groceries, clothing & shoes…I can’t understand how a custodial parent cannot show any expenses for their child unless they haven’t really spent the child support as they should on the child.
Question #2: I have not been able to obtain a part time job due to my school schedule (day & night classes) how will they base child support- I presume they no longer count my past self employment as it is not the present situation and no longer valid. Besides, my child support was always paid when I was employed! I had to close my remodeling/construction business 8/31/10- as i had not had any new jobs in 5-6 months- I went back to school to expand my employment options as I have no college degree- I do carry my son on my wife’s medical & dental insurance policy via her work for $180 mnth as we have for the past 14 years and intend to continue doing so. My son is 16yrs old.
I filed my request to modify child support 8/10. Child support has been paid through 8/10, I made a partial payment (my wife paid) as a show of good faith for 9/10 until we get this resolved. I have always supported my son and fully intend to do so to the best of my ability.Thanks for your guidance, greatly appreciated.