i’m not sure about the spousal support but for child support you can contact the office in the area he lives in, usually goes by county. you need to give them some info and pay $25 (that’s what it was 3 years ago) and they will do the rest. they have a lawyer that handles everything in court for you at no cost.
To reach us by telephone:
Customer Service Center
1-800-992-9457 toll free or
252-789-5225 in the Martin County area
7:30 AM to 7:30 PM
carol
Dear lleuth:
Greetings. Once you are divorced, you cannot sue for alimony or “spousal support” in North Carolina. You can sue for child support and I also recommend that you contact the child support enforcement agency, but in the county where you and the children live. Thank you.
Janet L. Fritts
Attorney with Rosen Law Firm
4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 500
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
919.787.6668 main phone
919.256.1665 direct fax
301 McCullough Drive Suite 510
Charlotte, North Carolina 28262
704.644.2831 main voice
704.307.4595 main fax
1829 East Franklin Street, Bldg 600
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919.321.0780 main phone
919.787.6668 main fax
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.
I ended a 22 year marriage in the Florida courts today. Pro se. I used the services of a “para-legal” who prepared documents stating that I was asking for child support, back child support, temporary and permanent alimony. I have been separated from my now ex-husband for almost three years and it took me that long to get the money to pay the high court fees and service fee of the paralegal to initiate any action. I appeared in court today prepared to show that my husband (a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a JD/MBA) is earning more than miniumum wage and that I spent 18 years as a dependent spouse (living in foreign countries most of that time)and had been finanacially abandoned for three years prior to and three years after the separation.
None of this mattered (and the paralegal and all the other clerks and pro se guardians along the way failed to point out.) The judge told me it was not in her jurisdiction to order child support or spousal support as my husband is a resident of North Carolina, not Florida. She granted the divorce and custody to me. But I am left with nothing, financially speaking after two decades as the wife of a highly mobile international banker.
It was a default judgement as my husband failed to answer. He had refused to file in North Carolina.
My question is now, how do I pursue spousal support in NC as well as child support and back child support. I will apply for state benefits tomorrow (food stamps) and hope that FL speaks to NC. But this is more than a case of a minimum wage earner. This is an educated man earning in excess of $50K a year, with the ability to earn far more as he had done during a twenty year marriage. Trouble is, I am the one on food stamps and he is the one in the cat bird seat. He will soon re-apply for the North Carolina bar.
Can you speak to the sympathy of NC courts as to this kind of circumstance and spousal support? Can you estimate how much it would cost to pursue the collection of same and what my payment options are? Is a man able to just walk away from his responsibilities with the full protection of the law as long as his former spouse is shackled by a financial inability to fight it?
lleuth