I have a Court Order determining child support and custody arrangements for my daughter. I have joint custody, with the primary physical custody of my daughter being awarded to her mother. Our initial non-court-ordered Separation Agreement had me paying half of the uninsured medical expenses, but our Court Order from September 2010 did not.
My ex-wife was not satisfied with the Judge’s ruling concerning custody, and now has filed for a Motion in the Cause to alter the agreement. She has also filed for a Hearing for a motion for me to pay half of our daughter’s uninsured medical expenses. My lawyer indicated that this was a part of the Child Support and couldn’t believe that I was paying it as a part of the original Separation Agreement. Now I understand that the Judge may require that I pay these expenses on top of Child Support. I have always fully paid Support on time to my ex-wife, and will provide my daughter with what she needs.
My question is how likely is it that I will end up having to pay half of the uninsured medical bills, and should I go ahead and consent to it to avoid the costly expense of court if the Judge will most likely rule in this manner? There were a lot of things in our old agreement that were not specified in the Court Order; one being I used to be able to claim my daughter on my taxes every other year. Unfortunately, my year would’ve have been 2010, but since the Court Order went into action in September, I was no longer able to do so.
Like I said, it’s been over a year and a half, and now my ex-wife is filing for these changes. This does come after she began working again in August of last year, which we have a court date set in a few weeks to determine the Modification of Child Support of which she would not consent. My new wife and I are also expecting in June, and we will have to modify Child Support again when the baby is born. And since Child Support Enforcement is not involved, I will have to go through this process again, as I cannot open a case with them since I am not the primary custodial parent.
Thank you for any guidance on this issue.