As so often happens, the callers were a parade of family law horrors…

I did a couple radio shows this morning, The Lincoln Ware Show on AM 1230 The Buzz in Cincinnati and also an interview on 1150 AM WJBO News Radio in Baton Rouge. As so often happens, the callers were a parade of family law horrors. One caller, Andre, said that he has always paid his child support but his ex moved out of state and won’t allow him his court-ordered visitation with his kid. It goes without saying that anybody within the family court system which is so diligent about collecting his money and sending it on to the mother
is willing to do anything to help connect him with his kids. Another gentleman complained that after his divorce he paid alimony directly to his ex-wife to help provide for her instead of waiting for the state system to handle it. Later on (guess what?), he said, “they said what I’d already paid was ‘a gift’ and that I still owed the same amount, which must be paid through them.” This was interesting to me because I’ve heard that about child support many times but never spousal support. After he hung up, I wondered if his ex had the honor to return the money he was forced to double pay. I hope she did. I explained that the reason child support enforcement does this with child support is the federal reimbursement funds they receive for the money they collect. If dad pays mom directly, they don’t get a reimbursement. I discussed the problems with this system in my co-authored column Federal Child Support Enforcement Cuts Will Hurt Bureaucrats, not Children (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 12/16/05). We also discussed Fathers & Families‘ highly-publicized lawsuit against Massachusetts’ child support guidelines and the problems faced by child support obligors during the recession.