Q: Can my husband's ex wife claim old child support if she forgave our debt years ago? She is not claiming. Just curious.
Her daughter is now 22. We stopped paying bc of financial struggles. We have 3 young children ourselves. The original rate was never revised after we had kids. I believe she will honor the forgiveness, and we have been low income for 6 years now (about when we had to stop paying). She is not rich, but has good income. We tried to pay for a year or two, a lower value agreed verbally with the ex wife, and then we had to stop upon worse circumstances. I am just curious.
A: There is certainly a chance she will be able to enforce the unpaid child support. In Utah, child support is determined by statute, not by agreement, and the child support obligation is based on the current order of a court. If you have not modified the order based on reduced income or change in circumstances, then the originally ordered amount still applies. Additionally, unpaid child support can be pursued even after a minor child becomes an adult. She could potentially pursue the unpaid amount either through ORS or by filing an order to show cause with the court, requesting to reduce all unpaid amounts to judgment.
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