Q: I have a question about filing for custody and child support after a divorce has been completed.
My sister and her ex husband are divorced but never included the custody or child support in their divorce because the were both able to agree to certain terms. She now wants to take him to court for child support because he just got a big promotion and feels he should pay more. So they have nothing ordered by a judge or child support enforcement agency stating how much should be paid. If she were to file for child support and it was to be increased, would she get any kind of back pay what so ever for the new amount or would her ex just start paying the new amount once the amount had been determined? Or would she get back paid from the date which she filed for the child support? This is in North Carolina, not sure if that matters. I told her I don't think she'll get back paid for anything but she told me her lawyer said she'll get back paid from the date they were separated. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could clear this up for me.
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- North Carolina
- (910) 333-9679
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- Answered
A: If he has been paying what they agreed to then there is no 'back child support' owed - asking for that is just greedy but you can never tell what a court would do. Of course if she decides to rock the boat and go for an increase in child support he should counter with a custody action which even if he loses may cost her everything she might get in a child support increase and then some or in the worse case scenario put her in the position to be paying child support. The best bet for them is to forget the lawyers and sit down and continue to agree to something fair. If they start fighting in court, all they will be doing is hurting the kids and paying strangers lots of money to decide things they could decide themselves for free..
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