Everyone Should Learn a Little about Law
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Everyone Should Learn a Little about Law

While lawyers and judges are the ultimate legal experts, of course, I believe that every citizen should take the time to learn a little about law for several reasons. First, it is important to know your rights, and knowing them can come in handy if anyone ever accuses you of a crime you didn't commit or threatens you legally in another other way. Second, learning about your local, state, and federal laws can help you act as a better citizen. When election time comes around, you can then truly understand ever change in law being proposed by a candidate and whether it benefits society or not. I plan to share posts about law topics explained in plain English on my new blog, so you can come back often to sharpen your legal knowledge!

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Everyone Should Learn a Little about Law

Methods That May Help You Collect Child Support Your Ex Owes You

Kaylee Wells

After a judge declares that you are divorced, you may think you will never need to speak to your divorce attorney again. While this is true in many cases, there are also times when people will need to contact their attorneys after their divorces are finalized. One example of this is if you are having trouble collecting the child support your ex-husband owes you. If you are currently in this situation, your divorce attorney might be able to help you collect the money your ex owes you for child support. Here are two methods that might work for you.

Contact Your State Agency

If you want to avoid spending money to collect the child support he owes, you could begin by contacting your state's agency that handles child support issues. Every state has an agency for this, and the agency is there to help people who are in your situation. The agency in your state that handles child support issues can do several things to help you with this issue.

The first thing is locating your ex. If you cannot find your ex, it can be very hard to collect the payments you are owed. Finding him is often the first step in resolving these cases. Once he is located, the agency will begin contacting him asking him to pay the money that he owes.

One method these agencies use is called the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program. This method requires the agency to file a document with the IRS. When the IRS receives it, they are required to withhold the person's tax refund check from them. In your situation, this would mean that our ex would not receive the refund he was entitled to. Instead, the money would be sent to you to pay off the arrearage owed for child support obligations. To use this method, your ex must be behind at least $150 or $500 in child support. This amount depends on whether you are on governmental assistance or not.

This is something you can typically apply for online; however, you might have to pay a small fee for the services. The fee is usually $25, but you might be able to get this waived if your income is low enough.

Take Him To Court

If you prefer to simply go through a lawyer for help collecting the child support owed to you, you could visit your divorce attorney for help. One of the main ways divorce attorneys help with this is taking the person back to court if he or she is not paying the court-ordered support. When a court orders support to be paid, it is a court order and can be enforced. All you have to do is appear before a judge, and the judge will order him to pay the money.

While this seems very easy, there can be complications. For example, just because a judge tells a man to pay, it does not mean he really will. The problem is that if he does not pay, one of the only things that can really happen to him is having to spend time in jail for this. If this occurs, you will never see the money owed to you. If you can avoid this, there might be a better chance of collecting the money that is owed. If your ex has a job with a regular paycheck, taking him to court is also a good way to get his paycheck garnished to pay the child support he owes.

If you are not sure how to handle this big ordeal, talk to a divorce attorney, such as those at Gordon Liebmann Attorneys at Law. He or she might be able to suggest other options you could also use for collecting child support payments. 


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