How can I dispute child support payment amount?

M

Miller M2

Member
Jurisdiction
Arizona
Hello everyone. I was ordered by the court to pay child support to party A. Now the child support payment it is for health insurance coverage. We share joint 50/50 custody. I believe $550 a month is way to much for health insurance for just two children. The total amount Party A pays for health insurance according to the court documents is around $1,150.00 per month. And I am paying half of it by court order.

How can I legally questioned or ask for proof of documents that supports the total amount that Party A pays monthly?




Thanks!
 
Miller M2 said:
How can I legally questioned or ask for proof of documents that supports the total amount that Party A pays monthly?
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That ship has sailed.
The forum for disputing the amount you were ordered to pay was before the court that awarded someone the $550 amount you now question.

At this point, should you seek a lower amount to pay will require another court battle.
 
Miller M2 said:
I believe $550 a month is way to much for health insurance for just two children. The total amount Party A pays for health insurance according to the court documents is around $1,150.00 per month. And I am paying half of it by court order.
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In terms of absolute dollars, that seems a lot. Is this insurance provided through an employer? If not, y'all might want to do some shopping around.


Miller M2 said:
How can I legally questioned or ask for proof of documents that supports the total amount that Party A pays monthly?
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You can "legally question[] or ask for" anything you like whenever you like. However, the time to dispute and challenge the amounts was before the court entered the order. Your former significant other must have presented evidence to the court to obtain the order. Don't you have copies of that? Did you serve discovery requests on him/her? You previously wrote that the amount paid is $1,150 "according to the court documents." What documents are you referring to?
 
Miller M2 said:
How can I legally questioned or ask for proof of documents that supports the total amount that Party A pays monthly?
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The court ordered it based on what she presented to the court then. She doesn't have to prove anything to you now.

You can, however, seek comparable coverage at a lower price and then petition the court to allow a change during open enrollment (end of current year).

Note the emphasis on comparable. If you present lower cost coverage with higher deductibles, higher MOOP, lesser benefits, you're going to lose.

Medical insurance is expensive. Especially for families with children. I doubt that you will find appreciable savings with comparable coverage.
 
EeeeekitsaMouse said:
What do you think you should be paying?
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Well the plans my employer has presented to me is way less than the monthly payments by hundreds of dollar.
Zigner said:
Is the support amount ordered truly for health insurance only?
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According to the court docs yes. $1,100 a month for two children and me paying half I believe is way to expensive. I can't obtain any information when it comes to the coverage, details of the breakdown of the the health insurance she has the children on. She is not willing to show/produce those documents to me to compare it to the plans I am being offered. Not even even the most expensive health plan offered by my employer is half of what she is paying. Next open enrollment is in a couple of months. Unless a major event happens.
 
adjusterjack said:
The court ordered it based on what she presented to the court then. She doesn't have to prove anything to you now.

You can, however, seek comparable coverage at a lower price and then petition the court to allow a change during open enrollment (end of current year).

Note the emphasis on comparable. If you present lower cost coverage with higher deductibles, higher MOOP, lesser benefits, you're going to lose.

Medical insurance is expensive. Especially for families with children. I doubt that you will find appreciable savings with comparable coverage.
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I can't compare due to the fact that I can't see any documentation from her health insurance. Because she won't provide those documents to me.
 
Miller M2 said:
Well the plans my employer has presented to me is way less than the monthly payments by hundreds of dollar.

According to the court docs yes. $1,100 a month for two children and me paying half I believe is way to expensive. I can't obtain any information when it comes to the coverage, details of the breakdown of the the health insurance she has the children on. She is not willing to show/produce those documents to me to compare it to the plans I am being offered. Not even even the most expensive health plan offered by my employer is half of what she is paying. Next open enrollment is in a couple of months. Unless a major event happens.
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Does she have insurance through her employer, upon which she is adding the children? If so (or even if not sure), I would try and find out the benefit package her employer offers in terms of health insurance and the cost of the insurance (employee's cost). You might have to apply for a job there, or find out some other way to determine the cost of employee insurance at her company (with two dependents added). If you know someone else who works there, you could ask them, or even ask the question on a widely read forum like Reddit (naming the company).

Most companies charge extra for dependent health insurance over and above what a single employee would pay, but they don't charge exactly by the person, so it is possible that someone with 2 dependents pays the same amount as 5 dependents, making the cost higher than if the price was limited to only 2 dependents.
 
Again, this is a court order.
The way to address this is... in court.

You had the opportunity, when this went before the judge, to request information in discovery. If you di not show and this a default judgement, that's on you. If you represented yourself because you felt you could not afford a lawyer, then compare what you're being ordered to pay to what you would have paid in legal fees as part of a cost/benefits analysis.

How recent is this order?
 
Red Kayak said:
Again, this is a court order.
The way to address this is... in court.

You had the opportunity, when this went before the judge, to request information in discovery. If you di not show and this a default judgement, that's on you. If you represented yourself because you felt you could not afford a lawyer, then compare what you're being ordered to pay to what you would have paid in legal fees as part of a cost/benefits analysis.

How recent is this order?
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I agree that this matter would have to be ultimately decided in court, but the OP can possibly do some of the legwork to determine the actual cost paid for the children's insurance. First of all, this would determine how much the OP might get the support reduced by and whether it is even worth paying a lawyer to go forward with this matter.

Second, knowing the actual cost of the insurance would be important information used in a legal proceeding. Of course, there are usually multiple different health insurance options available to employees (with different costs), so one would ultimately have to know which one was being used, but knowing all the options might be useful.
 
Miller M2 said:
Well the plans my employer has presented to me is way less than the monthly payments by hundreds of dollar.
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How many hundreds of dollars? Be exact.

If it is substantial you can petition the court for a review based on change in circumstances. The court can compel her to produce her plan for comparison.
 
Mark_A said:
I agree that this matter would have to be ultimately decided in court, but the OP can possibly do some of the legwork to determine the actual cost paid for the children's insurance. First of all, this would determine how much the OP might get the support reduced by and whether it is even worth paying a lawyer to go forward with this matter.

Second, knowing the actual cost of the insurance would be important information used in a legal proceeding. Of course, there are usually multiple different health insurance options available to employees (with different costs), so one would ultimately have to know which one was being used, but knowing all the options might be useful.
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Or, instead of sneaking around, the OP could subpoena the information.
 
Mark_A said:
Yes, that would work, but probably would incur a lot of legal expenses, just to determine whether this matter is even worth pursuing.
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The problem is, if someone is unwilling to voluntarily comply, then one needs to go through the court process.

Some form of documentation of insurance costs was likely submitted when Mom petitioned for this change. Generally, judges don't just slap down arbitrary numbers.

None of us are privy to the details of what lead up to OP's current court order. However, there is a general process. One party petitions. A hearing is calendared and the respondent is notified. I kind of get the feeling that either OP didn't show up to court, or showed up without counsel and completely unprepared. When representing oneself, it is very easy to dig a hole that you can't get out of.
 
Red Kayak said:
The problem is, if someone is unwilling to voluntarily comply, then one needs to go through the court process.
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Yes, I completely agree. But how much money does he want to spend on legal fees to even determine whether or not this is worth pursuing? If and when one wants to get the support amount changed, going through the court process is definitely required, and might be very hard to do without a lawyer.
 

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