File a Motion to Modify Child Support
Video Transcribed: My name is Jason Lile, and I am a Men’s Rights lawyer in Tulsa. One thing that will inevitably come up with any custody or visitation order is when the child or children turn 18, does child support automatically end, or do you, as the payer, or the recipient, need to do something? The answer is no; it does not automatically end. Now, if you’re the payer, it would behoove you to take the time to file a motion to modify child support.
The threshold is much lower than if you’re modifying custody of visitation. And hire a lawyer just to inform the court through a pleading that one of the children aged out. The child support should be recalculated at that point for one less child and reestablished accordingly. Now, it won’t happen automatically. Child support is either being paid from one party to the other directly or to the department of human services through an income assignment of some sort.
And the department of human services will not stop unless you file a motion with the court, and they have a district court order that says it’s supposed to stop because of the child’s age. And the district court will still consider you obligated to follow its order unless you ask it to change its order.
That being said, I have seen two different results when people do not take care of this when the child ages out. I have seen a payer come into court and say, judge, I’ve been overpaying this other parent for two and a half years because the child graduated or turned 18 two and a half years ago. And that judge looked straight at that other litigant and said, sir, you needed to file something with the court. And because you didn’t, I don’t have any basis upon which to do anything about it.
And you sat on your right to have this modified, which is not my fault or hers. I have also seen a similar situation where there was an overpayment for a couple of years because neither party filed and modified it.
And the court said the same thing to the petitioner. It said, you were supposed to file something for me to stop this butt, and I looked at the other party who’s receiving the money and said, but you have been being overpaid, and you’ve been willfully accepting overpayments. So now he’s overpaid, and you owe him money.
I honestly can’t tell you what a judge will do in a particular situation about that last part, about whether the overpayment should be reimbursed, and you shouldn’t wait to find out because you don’t know, and I don’t know.
That needs to be taken care of as soon as possible to receive an accurate amount of child support. And you need to seek the advice of a lawyer as to how to do that. If you have any questions about family law matters or need an Oklahoma Child Custody Attorney for Dads or a Tulsa Child Support Attorney For Fathers, please contact dads.law.
