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Maryland Child Support Questions & Answers
1 Answer | Asked in Child Support and Family Law for Maryland on
Q: My ex has sole custody of our daughter. I am on SSDI. The child support administration ordered me to pay 120.00 a month

Adding in 30.00 extra dollars for arrears. They also ordered me to contact Social Security to add her for auxiliary benefits. Between the 150 a month and half of my benefits comes to a total of 700.00 a month. At the hearing for child support, no financial statements were asked from either of us.... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Aug 18, 2022

You need a lawyer to review the situation. It is not possible to answer your question with a better picture of the financials. If you cannot afford a lawyer, contact Maryland Legal Aid, website here:

https://www.mdlab.org/contact-us/

They have an office serving the lower Eastern...
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1 Answer | Asked in Family Law and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: I have a child support order (never married to my child's mother) and am currently in arrears for court ordered

expenses apparently incurred 11 years ago. Is the statute of limitations to reduce the arrears to a judgment 12 years or is it 3 years like a contempt action?

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jul 2, 2022

12 years for a court order/judgment.

1 Answer | Asked in Family Law, Child Custody and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: I recently discovered I have a son. I would like to establish a relationship and be on the birth certificate.

I recently discovered through a DNA test that I have a son. His mother was married at the time to a real jerk of a man but was afraid to get a divorce. She told me she got an abortion and we broke things off. I lived the last 14 years not knowing she went ahead with the birth. My son was born in... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jul 2, 2022

You can file a petition to establish paternity. You say you're doing this for your son, but are you are really doing this for yourself? Your son has no idea that you exist or that the man he knows as his father is not his biological father. Have you considered the potential harm and... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Custody and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: My ex took away my son from me years ago. We never had an agreement set up on child support. Now she is finally giving

Me visitation so I have agreed to start paying again. If she takes away my visitation and doesn’t let me have him a couple days week and I take her to court, can she get me for back child support?

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jun 15, 2022

The court can only order back child support dating back to (1) the date a petition for child support was filed in the court; or (2) in the case of an existing child support order entered in the past, back to the date child support was not paid during any eriod that the existing child support order... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Traffic Tickets, Child Support and Election Law for Maryland on
Q: i received a ticket for driving passed a stopped school bus allegedly. I tried to request a court date but i was told

I was told that i waiting to look and can no longer receive a court date. But it say no where on the ticket the due date of requesting a court date.

Can i still get a court date to fight this ?

Is it true that a date should be on the ticket of how long i have to request a court date ?

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Mar 4, 2022

The Maryland Uniform Citation form has an inset box on the lower right portion of the ticket that contains instructions on how to pay, plead to the ticket, and how to request a tial date, and it states the timeframe (30 days) you have to do it in. It is in small print, so perhapse yu overlooked... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Custody and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Do I need a lawyer now that my child’s father is suing for sole legal and physical custody?

We have a currently child support case open this custody case opened after.

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Dec 24, 2021

Considering the consequences if you lose and he is awarded sole custody, I think you may wish to consider hiring a lawyer to insure that does not happen. Waiting until after you lose at trial is too late.

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Child Support Question: Ex-husband owes about 63,000 in back support. Makes small payments. Do I have any options ?

Located in Maryland.

Ex-husband owes about 63,000 in back support. Last payment recieved was end of October. It's now December, no payment has been recieved. He is in Germany hiding. He has no contact with myself or his children (his Choice)

What should I do? Do I just recieve... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Dec 7, 2021

To the extent the arrearages have been reduced to a monetary judgment, which is not automatic and requires a motion and request to do so, that judgment may then be collected like any other judgment. What does that mean? If you can locate assets, like bank accounts or real property owned by him,... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Family Law, Divorce, Child Custody and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Where can I get a lawyer for a low income family?
Scott Scherr
Scott Scherr
answered on Dec 1, 2021

Contact Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Services, Legal Aid, or your local bar association.

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Court coming up and I’ve been struggling to pay my child support over the years from losing job or can’t hold on to it.

Court contempt. I have struggle with hdhd and stuff going up and I don’t know what to do in this pandemic. What should I do?

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Nov 5, 2021

There is a financial statement form you can either download from the circuit court website from the family law forms, or pick up from the courthouse. There is a short and a long form version. I suggest the long form if you can manage it. Download the instructions for how to fill it out as well... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: I'm paying child support but i can barely afford my rent what can I do legally i owe as well I'm drowning in debt
Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Nov 5, 2021

If your income has gone down since child support was last calculated, and/or if the custodial parent's income has increased, then you may qualify for a modification of child support. If you cannot afford a lawyer, there is a self-help desk in the family law division of the circuit court with... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: My child is 18 in high school living on their own, do I still have to pay child support to custodial parent?

How do I get child support changed to go to child personally while they are living on their own?

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Oct 22, 2021

You would have to file a motion to modify child support in order to change an existing child support order, so until you do that and the court issues a different order, you owe the money. The court has the discretion to modify child support back to the date you file your motion to modify. The... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: How can I ask the judge to make my ex stop discussing child support with our son?

Divorce was final in 2007. I was awarded primary custody and child support. Our son decided to go live with his Dad in 2011 and Dad stopped paying child support. Son was kicked out of Dad's house in early 2020 and I asked the child support administration to collect support until our son... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jul 7, 2021

They can't make your ex stop. A judge can order restrictions on visitation and issue orders prohibiting disparaging comments and inappropriate discussions that are deemed harmful to the mental and emotional health of the child, assuming you have a therapist or psychiatrist who is seeing the... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Can I get arrears in child support since I never filed and father never provided support?

Although, we lived together for 3 years out of the age of our 14year old daughter. The most he’s provided her is $76.00. He still wasn’t providing any support for the child and uses my tax refunds(I never gave him 1/2 of the refund for the child for the 14 years filed), child sex, and my... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jul 3, 2021

Go to the Office of Child Support Enforcement in the county or City of Baltimore where you move to, and fill out the petition form for requesting child support. Child support is payable accounting from the date you file the petition for child support, not before, so you cannot claim amounts that... View More

2 Answers | Asked in Family Law and Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Looking at going to a Tech school to get certified so I can get a better job, what happens with my child support?
Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jun 26, 2021

If there's a court order directing payment of child support, it remains in place until one of the parents files a motion to modify it, based on a change of circumstances. So, unless that happens, and the court makes a modification based on the motion, then nothing changes. If the other... View More

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1 Answer | Asked in Child Custody, Child Support and Family Law for Maryland on
Q: Can my soon to be ex wife claim back child support

We separated 8 years ago we came to the agreement that I can see my daughter every other weekend or as much as I asked and I would give her $500 a month I sometimes gave cash , money orders , and recently online payments to her account she is saying she is going to put me on child support and claim... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jun 10, 2021

She can get child support accounting from the date she files a petition for custody and support in court, so at any hearing the judge can award support going back to the date she filed. If there is a written agreement, or she can cobble together enough proof of an agreement, that you were to pay... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Maryland child support, can my wife put me on child support even if we are legally married
Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jun 10, 2021

If you are living separate and apart, and she has primary residential custody, yes.

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: my wife is retired navy and disabled. I have full custody of my daughter. Can I get child support

She is taking expensive vacation's and putting it in my face

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on Jun 2, 2021

Both parents have a legal obligation to support their minor children. The amount of support is based on combined monthly income of both parents, and the amount of gross support determined by the Child Support Guidelines. The parents are expected to pay the share of the gross support in proportion... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support and Family Law for Maryland on
Q: Can Maine collect child support when x wife is dead and youngest child is 37 years old

Been paying for over 20 years and she or children have received nothing not only that the children lived with me in Md I have school records. I have been labeled a dead beat dad and driver's license suspended forover25 years

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on May 31, 2021

The assumption based on the limited facts provided is that there was an order for child support issued in Maine at some point if time, and you did not pay. Eventually arrears accumulated and the amount owed was reduced to a monetary judgment. That judgment has likely been earning interest from... View More

1 Answer | Asked in Child Support for Maryland on
Q: Would I have to pay child support of an 18yo HS senior that is spreading their senior year over two years, part-time?

My child is a 17 year-old, just finishing his Junior year at a small independant school.

My wife and son are considering having him attend part-time over the next two years, instead of graduating in one year, and him working part-time during that time.

Would I still be obligated... View More

Mark Oakley
Mark Oakley
answered on May 27, 2021

Maryland Code, General Provisions, Section 1-401(b), provides:

An individual who has attained the age of 18 years and who is enrolled in secondary school has the right to receive support and maintenance from both of the individual's parents until the first to occur of the following...
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