Beaumont Child Support Lawyer
Each parent has a legal duty to support their child, including providing the child with clothing, food, shelter, medical care and education. This obligation continues until the child turns 18, graduates from high school, or is otherwise legally emancipated. In some instances where has special needs or is disabled, support obligations may continue indefinitely.
For various reasons, financial or otherwise, parents need to occasionally make changes to child support obligations or wish to seek help from the court in collecting child support payments. For cases like these it is important that you find a knowledgeable child support lawyer in Beaumont to ensure that your rights are upheld.
In recent years, Texas has introduced more efficient and stringent methods of enforcing child support orders. The parent who is required to pay support could have his/her wages garnished, income tax refunds diverted, lottery winnings intercepted, or even committed to jail for up to 6 months for failure to make child support payments. A parent who is in arrears for back-child support accrues interest at a rate of 6% per year on the unpaid balance.
Our firm has successfully helped hundreds of people in Beaumont and throughout Southeast Texas with legalities related to child support including child support modification, child support enforcement and health care enforcement.
Child Support Modification
Situations change, and this is certainly more so in economically unstable times. Is your child entitled to more child support? Are you entitled to a reduction in your monthly child support obligation because you have lost your job or you earn less? Our firm is board certified in family law and can answer these questions for you and can effectively make your case to the court.
Amount of Child Support Payments
Child support payments are based on statutory guidelines. The guidelines suggest that the amount of child support is based on a fixed percentage of the obligor’s net resources. This percentage is applied to the obligor’s first $8,550 of net resources each month.
How does the court determine net resources?
First, the court must first calculate all resources the obligor has. This includes:
All other income actually received – for example:
Next, the court deducts the following items to determine net income:
Gross income less the above-referenced deductions, yields an obligor’s net resources.
Our firm can help by petitioning the court in your behalf to try and reduce or increase current child support obligations. If you would like to speak with a board certified child support lawyer to discuss the concerns you have related to your child support payments, please contact us today and schedule a free consultation.
Beaumont Child Support Enforcement Lawyer
Enforcing Child Support is a simple process under the law. There must be a valid court order which orders the other person to do something – either pay child support or produce the child at a certain location, etc. If the person ordered to do so fails to obey the court order, a Motion for Enforcement can be filed, served on the other person, and a hearing will be held, usually within 30 days but no sooner than 10 days after service. This allows both sides to prepare their case. The losing party can be ordered to pay attorney’s fees.
To win a child support enforcement, there must be at least one failure to pay a monthly ordered child support amount. The punishment can be as severe as 6 months in county jail for failure to comply with a child support order. Sometimes the Judge will simply impose a type of probation and allow the payor time to get caught up on his or her child support.
Beaumont Health Support Enforcement Lawyer
In the state of Texas, parents are obligated to provide health insurance for their children. The court can order either parent to enroll a child on an existing health insurance policy but customarily orders the child support obligor to do so or to reimburse the cost of the health care premium to the primary custodian of the child.