If the custodial parent has taken your child and left the state you must know about this law. My son is now 18, but when he was still very young my ex (we were married about a year) took him and moved from Florida to the upper Michigan peninsula. Not that she ever made it easy for me to try to have a relationship with him (I have the largest file in my county history in a effort to maintain visitation) but that was the final straw. Twice Michigan raised or "modified" my support to fit their criteria. But, guess what, according to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act they are not legally allowed to do that. The state that granted the final decree is the governing state when it comes to duration, amount, extent, and nature and other obligations of support. The only thing the child state of residence controls is health, wellbeing and visitation. So if you have has an increase or extension imposed on you by another state, take heed of this information. It's amazing that Alger County, Michigan seemed oblivious of this law.... as did Genesee County, which also increased me on my two other kids years ago. Thank God I found this information this time. Good Luck
If you need a Lawyer? LegalMatch allows you to present your case, and respond only to lawyers who want to help you. It's Free & Confidential. Need a Family Lawyer?
Comments for
The Interstate Support Law YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT
interstate cs after years of I don't knows! by: Anonymous
I was married in Ohio in 1990 and had a little girl! When my ex and I fell out I told her I wanted custody of my lil girl, so she took off and I did not know where her and my daughter was at all. I had to wait a period of one year to get divorced because we did not know there where abouts .So on the day I got divorced the courts had found her through public assistance in Washington State!The court told me they could not order custody or child suppor due to the mother and child had lived in another state for a period of 6 months or more.That Ohio did not have jurisdiction on this matter and that they could only grant me a divorce and that we have equal custody. So needless to say I wasn't orderd to pay child support and couldn't get custodyof my daughter all becaus my ex fled the state to avoid this! Well 5 or 6 years later I was brought into court and was order to pay child support on my daughter, which at the time I stated how can you have jurisdiction now if you did not have it yeas ago? No answer was givin they just said Washington is asking for it! Then I set up a account for child support to take monies out well they never did for over a year and so I ended up needing money so I took some out of the account and never heard a word about cs again or 3 years then I was contacted by Wasington stting they wanted monies because Ohio told them they couldn't enforce the cs becaus they did not have jurisdiction so the dismissed my support in Ohio ! Then 3 or 4 more years later Ohio cs sent a witholding order to my workplace so my employer sent the monies to cs well then I was out of work a few years after this had started and I ended up disabled! Now the state of Ohio is taking me to court for non support of dependants! A felony ! This comes about after I had been working with the cs agency trying to fix this situation so that it wouldn't get to the point of non spport ,because I was disbled and couldn't work , plus my daughter was 19 and she had dropped out of high school since I don't know when! Yet they re trying to say I owe till June of thi year even though it should legally be terminated a while ago and all my support is arrears only no current support should be owed!! It is a big game with this agency and one I can't win against it seems they can do what ever they feel they want to !I found in Ohio Cas Law that if there was wrongfull taking of the child to another state that Ohio can not enforce the cs and had to return the child to the state ,but my daughter is 19 so that won't matter but they should still not be able to enforce the cs! I guess I will find out soon enough as I have to go to court and fight for my freedom because of a daughter I really don't know and had no chance to be dad to her or her a daughter to me all because of her mother and nw my freedom is at stake over a child support case that does not know what they are doing !
Dec 03, 2009 Rating
Almost the same situation. by: Anonymous
I am trying to figure things out seeing as how my ex-wife currently filed for non-payment of child support in the state of Washington. I live in Texas and the divorce was in New Mexico. She will not hold up her end of the parenting plan and we had a verbal agreement that she would let me "slide" on the 6 months I was out of a job... I know it was dumb of me to take a verbal agreement but, I guess I learned. As far as custody we have joint. Can someone kind lead me in the right direction of where I need to look. The only help the Attorney General's office gave me was how to make payments.
Nov 20, 2009 Rating
UPDATE by: WILLIAM SCHORK
While I am still fighting this case with Michigan, we are nearing the end of this long battle. It does appear that the judge is leaning in my favor.
In my hundreds of hours of research I have uncovered numerous cases, all won on appeal. The critical laws to apply to an interstate child support case, especially when the non custodial parent has NEVER left the issuing state, are UIFSA,( Uniform Interstate Family Support Act)
FFCCSOA,( Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act.Also pay particular attention to the laws pertaining to Subject Matter Jurisdiction. Many of these cases, resulting from divorces granted in 1990's, are now being fought over duration of support because the children are now reaching the age of majority. Duration of support is a non-modifiable aspect of the support order and is determined by the order of the original issuing state, providing a legally registered transfer to another jurisdiction has never taken place.
Sep 03, 2009 Rating
I Did not no this by: Anonymous
I want to thank you for informing us on these issues of Interstate child support. I went through the same things- Ohio was sending me checks knowing that a non-custodial parent IS NOT allow to know what a child support check looks like but they kept sending & sending these checks to the state I lived in and that is Georgia. the only reason they gave to me is they could not find my ex so they said its in your name, GA. child support had issued a warrant for my arrest back in January 27 for failure to appear in court and that's when they kept me in jail for 3 month there answer was I did not appear in court but I think they didn't want to look like fools for there BIG, BIG mistake so now I'm right back where I started owing $7000.00 + so while in jail they want me to come up with sum of the monies i ow. I was laid-off and didn't have the means of getting money. I feel that we have to change Legislation on how these parasites conduct business... write to your legislator....
Jun 09, 2009 Rating
Interstate law by: Anonymous
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NEW & SHOULD BE STATED WITHIN THE ORDERS THAT IF THE CP DECIDES TO CROSS THE STATE LINE, THE NCP MUST GIVE PERMISSION. THIS GOES BACK TO ME STATING "READ YOUR ORDERS" & UNDERSTAND THEM! STOP WHINING!
Feb 26, 2009 Rating
Question! by: Anonymous
So does that mean that if the mother lived in Pennsylvania and did the case up there that Texas since the father lives here has no control over his case. Because he was all paid up and Texas later after Pennsylvania got all the money Texas tried to charge $1800 and said something came up. So that means Texas has no right then huh. I really need to know this please comment back.
