My question involves child support in the State of: New York
Hello,
In May 2015 in the custody and visitation court hearing (in Brooklyn, NY) the mother (custodial parent) and I (the father, non-custodial parent) agreed that I will have the children (4 & 5 year olds) from the last day of school to two weeks before the new school year begins (approximately 8 weeks). We also agreed that the mother will pay me $75 in traveling expenses for biweekly visitation (the judge calculated $150 in gas and tolls roundtrip). The mother relocated from upstate NY (5 years ago) and claims not to have any mode of transportation to assist in pickup and drop-off of the children, so I make the trip 3-5 hours depending on the traffic and the children needs to use the bathroom or move around, 4 times in one weekend (I spend 16-20 hours on the road driving which I still feel is bs but I agreed to it so I can be in my children’s lives). That was agreed to in court and the lawyers for both parties were tasked with working out a stip (basically little things like holidays and telephonic times and stuff like that).
Since finding out the news that I will have the children for the summertime, to a week before school ended the mother gave me the runaround; first stating that she was willing to assist with daycare and other expenses to finally stating that she spoke to her lawyer and he informed her that as the custodial parent she doesn’t have to pay diddly-squat in the care of the children. It just didn’t make sense in my head that I would pay child support for 8 weeks when the children are not in the mother care. So I filed a petition in June requesting my child support payments be suspended for the 8 weeks, the mother pay her portion of support for the 8 weeks and pay daycare expenses (may sound drastic to some but that is essentially what I paid in the past when my children was in daycare as well). I got a date to appear before the magistrate August 20th which was essentially the last week before I had to return the children to their mother. Knowing this in good faith, I said to myself that I will save the receipts and endure the financial hardship knowing that everything should be retroactive to the date the petition was filed.
August 20th came and her lawyer had another case so the case was adjourned. I believe it was a plan to continue to stretch out the dates so that by time we appear before the judge that the financial hardship wouldn’t be as dire. The support magistrate set the new case hearing to the same day as the custody/visitation hearing but earlier in the day. The new date was November 16. The judge stated to us that he will most likely rule to reduce the payments by the 8 weeks throughout all the payments because its not feasible to keep coming back to court to suspend the order ever summer.
The first case was the child support case, I couldn’t afford to pay for a lawyer due to having to pay for organic food and daycare expenses for the 8 weeks in the summer so I represented myself. The mother lawyer filed a motion stating that there is no court order stating that I would have the children for the summer. The magistrate checked the computer and said he went back and checked all the hearings and the visitation order never changed from the original one. I stated to the magistrate that the mother and I both agreed on the record and spoke into the microphone that I will have the children for the summertime. Long story short the magistrate stated that I lied on my petition stating that there was a court order and I seem like the type that whenever there is a change in visitation that I will petition the court. I said to him this is my first time in two years ever asking the court to modify the order. I said to the magistrate, the mother wouldn’t give the children up without an order and my receipts shows the expenses that I incurred. The magistrate forgot what he stated in August and when I reminded him, he just ignored my statement. In addition the attorney for the mother stated that in the visitation case that the mother is asking for the summer visitation be changed and I wouldn’t have the children for that amount of time in the summer because the mother is asking for a change in circumstances. The magistrate stated that it was a private agreement between the mother and I and he dismissed the case.
I was flabbergasted because I just couldn’t believe what happened. The visitation hearing started and the judge (different judge) went over his notes and stated “last time we agreed upon the father will have the children for the summertime and the mother will pay $75 biweekly in traveling expenses”, then the children’s attorney said that her notes state the same thing. So I interjected and told the judge what happen in the previous case when the mother claimed that there was no order and such I voluntarily took the children without a court order. The judge stated that the mother and I both agreed on the record (he use the word accused recluse or something like that, if anyone knows what the word is please let me know) to those two things and it will be retroactive to May 2015. The mother lawyer stated that there is a change in circumstances and the judge said that the only way the order will change is if the mother wants to file a new petition to get the order modify. The change in circumstance is that my son has aspergers, his IQ is 132 at 6 years old and basically I don’t know how to care for a child with aspergers. Both the judge and children lawyer stated that wasn’t sufficient for a change in circumstances. The case was adjourned so that the audio from the May 2015 hearing could be transcribed into an order.
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail stating that my support case was dismissed due to not having an order that supports my claim and I have 30 days to appeal. It also stated that the support judge gave me a “precious” $46 credit because of traveling expenses and the organic food regiment the mother has the children on. It also states that there is an overpayment on the account. So basically they garnished too much money from my paycheck. They hold one payment on file which is $400 and have an additional $1100 overpayment and due to the laws he (the judge) cannot refund me anything.
My question is should I appeal? There still isn’t an order (in writing) but I feel that there is one since its retroactive to May 2015. Also, my support order was based on my 2012 tax return which after the health care credit came to $400 biweekly. Now in 2015 I make like $30K more. The difference in pay between the mother and I is $10K. So if they were to recalculate everything my payments will go up. During the summer I paid $2200 in daycare, $1,000 in organic groceries expenses, $400 in clothes and on top of that I was still paying child support. It screwed me up so badly that I couldn’t pay the taxes on a rental property that I inherited. I have a section 8 tenant and since I’m behind on my taxes the housing authority is doing rent abatement until I pay it in full or come to a payment agreement with the tax authorities.
I know next summer I want to have my children again but can’t afford them if I don’t get my child support payments suspended for the 8 weeks. The mother is banking on me not being able to afford the children because she is a school nurse and has the summer off and believes that I do a bad job, although there are no bad reports from the summer camp or nothing to support that.
Thank you for reading this and your advice in advance.
Hello,
In May 2015 in the custody and visitation court hearing (in Brooklyn, NY) the mother (custodial parent) and I (the father, non-custodial parent) agreed that I will have the children (4 & 5 year olds) from the last day of school to two weeks before the new school year begins (approximately 8 weeks). We also agreed that the mother will pay me $75 in traveling expenses for biweekly visitation (the judge calculated $150 in gas and tolls roundtrip). The mother relocated from upstate NY (5 years ago) and claims not to have any mode of transportation to assist in pickup and drop-off of the children, so I make the trip 3-5 hours depending on the traffic and the children needs to use the bathroom or move around, 4 times in one weekend (I spend 16-20 hours on the road driving which I still feel is bs but I agreed to it so I can be in my children’s lives). That was agreed to in court and the lawyers for both parties were tasked with working out a stip (basically little things like holidays and telephonic times and stuff like that).
Since finding out the news that I will have the children for the summertime, to a week before school ended the mother gave me the runaround; first stating that she was willing to assist with daycare and other expenses to finally stating that she spoke to her lawyer and he informed her that as the custodial parent she doesn’t have to pay diddly-squat in the care of the children. It just didn’t make sense in my head that I would pay child support for 8 weeks when the children are not in the mother care. So I filed a petition in June requesting my child support payments be suspended for the 8 weeks, the mother pay her portion of support for the 8 weeks and pay daycare expenses (may sound drastic to some but that is essentially what I paid in the past when my children was in daycare as well). I got a date to appear before the magistrate August 20th which was essentially the last week before I had to return the children to their mother. Knowing this in good faith, I said to myself that I will save the receipts and endure the financial hardship knowing that everything should be retroactive to the date the petition was filed.
August 20th came and her lawyer had another case so the case was adjourned. I believe it was a plan to continue to stretch out the dates so that by time we appear before the judge that the financial hardship wouldn’t be as dire. The support magistrate set the new case hearing to the same day as the custody/visitation hearing but earlier in the day. The new date was November 16. The judge stated to us that he will most likely rule to reduce the payments by the 8 weeks throughout all the payments because its not feasible to keep coming back to court to suspend the order ever summer.
The first case was the child support case, I couldn’t afford to pay for a lawyer due to having to pay for organic food and daycare expenses for the 8 weeks in the summer so I represented myself. The mother lawyer filed a motion stating that there is no court order stating that I would have the children for the summer. The magistrate checked the computer and said he went back and checked all the hearings and the visitation order never changed from the original one. I stated to the magistrate that the mother and I both agreed on the record and spoke into the microphone that I will have the children for the summertime. Long story short the magistrate stated that I lied on my petition stating that there was a court order and I seem like the type that whenever there is a change in visitation that I will petition the court. I said to him this is my first time in two years ever asking the court to modify the order. I said to the magistrate, the mother wouldn’t give the children up without an order and my receipts shows the expenses that I incurred. The magistrate forgot what he stated in August and when I reminded him, he just ignored my statement. In addition the attorney for the mother stated that in the visitation case that the mother is asking for the summer visitation be changed and I wouldn’t have the children for that amount of time in the summer because the mother is asking for a change in circumstances. The magistrate stated that it was a private agreement between the mother and I and he dismissed the case.
I was flabbergasted because I just couldn’t believe what happened. The visitation hearing started and the judge (different judge) went over his notes and stated “last time we agreed upon the father will have the children for the summertime and the mother will pay $75 biweekly in traveling expenses”, then the children’s attorney said that her notes state the same thing. So I interjected and told the judge what happen in the previous case when the mother claimed that there was no order and such I voluntarily took the children without a court order. The judge stated that the mother and I both agreed on the record (he use the word accused recluse or something like that, if anyone knows what the word is please let me know) to those two things and it will be retroactive to May 2015. The mother lawyer stated that there is a change in circumstances and the judge said that the only way the order will change is if the mother wants to file a new petition to get the order modify. The change in circumstance is that my son has aspergers, his IQ is 132 at 6 years old and basically I don’t know how to care for a child with aspergers. Both the judge and children lawyer stated that wasn’t sufficient for a change in circumstances. The case was adjourned so that the audio from the May 2015 hearing could be transcribed into an order.
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail stating that my support case was dismissed due to not having an order that supports my claim and I have 30 days to appeal. It also stated that the support judge gave me a “precious” $46 credit because of traveling expenses and the organic food regiment the mother has the children on. It also states that there is an overpayment on the account. So basically they garnished too much money from my paycheck. They hold one payment on file which is $400 and have an additional $1100 overpayment and due to the laws he (the judge) cannot refund me anything.
My question is should I appeal? There still isn’t an order (in writing) but I feel that there is one since its retroactive to May 2015. Also, my support order was based on my 2012 tax return which after the health care credit came to $400 biweekly. Now in 2015 I make like $30K more. The difference in pay between the mother and I is $10K. So if they were to recalculate everything my payments will go up. During the summer I paid $2200 in daycare, $1,000 in organic groceries expenses, $400 in clothes and on top of that I was still paying child support. It screwed me up so badly that I couldn’t pay the taxes on a rental property that I inherited. I have a section 8 tenant and since I’m behind on my taxes the housing authority is doing rent abatement until I pay it in full or come to a payment agreement with the tax authorities.
I know next summer I want to have my children again but can’t afford them if I don’t get my child support payments suspended for the 8 weeks. The mother is banking on me not being able to afford the children because she is a school nurse and has the summer off and believes that I do a bad job, although there are no bad reports from the summer camp or nothing to support that.
Thank you for reading this and your advice in advance.
Modification of Support: Non Custodial Parent Child Support Petition Dismiss, Should I Appeal
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