Q: If Birth Mother is using Child Support Services to get a court hearing re: support order, who serves dad? Mother or CSS?
Birth mother and birth father are not legally divorced yet. Birth mother has been receiving $1900/mo for 3 kids without any court order. Birth father has been paying monthly for well over a year. Birth Mother has involved CSS to get court ordered child support. Last August, birth father talked to CSS informing them of current address, phone number, etc and that he was currently paying $1900/mo. Was told there would be court hearing on 10 January. On 3 January, birth father called CSS office to determine what he would need to bring to court, and was told that court date had been postponed because he hadn't been served, as the address and phone number had notes that they were his old address/number, even though they are in fact current. Who serves birth father? CSS office or birth mother? And how long should it take to get served after confirming address/number is correct? Three weeks later and still no papers. Would like to get this resolved ASAP.
A: CSE will serve likely serve him. If birth mother was receiving $1900 a month with no problems and without a court order and it was birth mother who started the action with Child Support Enforcement then birth mother may possibly get a surprise and end up receiving less than $1900 per month. CSE is notoriously slow which is likely a good thing if birth mother started this action because it will give birth mother a chance to consult with a local attorney who can calculate what child support is suppose to be and if that turns out to be less than $1900 a month, then birth mother can hopefully withdraw the child support action. Of course if birth father is supposed to be paying more than $1900 a month then definitely proceed, just expect things to go slowly if CSE is involved. They have a ton of cases and someone who is receiving $1900 a month voluntarily with no court order is likely not a high priority.
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