The parent is irresponsible so why would they have the means to pay you that money? It's gone.
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Gaurdianship
- Thread Starter Jim Oaks
- Start date
The questions are pertinent to your situation.
In order to sue her civilly you would need an attorney...and even if you win (and I truly doubt a Judge would award you 10 years of back support),but even if you win you will likely never see a penny.
As I said before, you need to consult with a Family Law attorney to get guidance on how to legalize your guardianship of this child and get a child support order.
Child support is not dischargeable in a bankruptcy but a civil judgement is.
This is useful information, thank you.
They had the means...they chose to spend it vacations and other non essential frivolous items/activities
We were hoodwinked.
Disabled Vet
Well-Known Member
Yes they do.... If the parent is getting Social Security Disability. Then the children would get half their amount split evenly. Yet, someone must control that money for the children. That person has to fill out a payee questionnaire explaining where and how that money was spent taking care of the children. If they falsified this form.... that could be criminal.
See? They spent it. Do they have a job they get paid for doing? If they do, then yeah, maybe they'd be able to pay you back but if that's true, it begs the question: Why haven't they been paying you any support for the child all this time? And if they are this irresponsible, how'd they get approved to adopt this kid in the first place?
Tax Counsel
Well-Known Member
So the child does not have a disability, but the legal parent is getting disability payments. Is that because the legal parent himself is disabled? If so, then understand that a good chunk of the payments he gets is for his own disability. Take a look the Social Security page on Benefits for Children for an overview of how the children's benefits work.
In any event, focusing on the parent getting SSA benefits is a distraction from your legal issue. Your issue is that you need money to help support the child and the legal parent is not paying you any support. You also have no court appointed guardianship and thus right now have no legal relationship to the child. In order to get an award of child support payments you first need to go to court to be appointed the guardian because you need that legal relationship to be entitled to support. Then you can seek the support payments. The sooner you file the sooner you can start to get support. You likely can file for both in a single court action, and the court would proceed then in those two steps. For information on how the support is computed, see the Indiana Child Support rules.
As for retroactive support, the general rule is that the support obligation will start the date you file the petition for the support. That is, you typically do not get any support for any period before you file. The reason for this is to avoid you delaying your support petition and then blindsiding the parent with a claim for years of support that he or she may not be prepared to pay. You knew years ago you were supporting the child and that is when you should have filed the court action to get the support. Because of that, the delay is on you and likely will cost you getting support for those earlier periods.
I strongly suggest you hire a family law attorney to pursue the support issue since you need the money to provide the support. You won't get it unless you file the petition/complaint for it.
Or you could simply return the kid to the parent or call CPS and have them take the kid. Either way, you'd then be off the hook for paying for the kid.
Red Kayak
Well-Known Member
Um... Actually they are pertinent if you are proposing to take action based on "facts" that at variance with reality.
Your issue about guardianship is family law, as would any child support case. Child support orders are often backdated to the date of filing one's cs petition with the court.
A civil case would have to be filed in a different court, and is not part of family law. The problem is, you have implied nowhere that there was a contract (spoken or written) with the parent, and there seems to be no evidence that you entered into this arrangement out of anything but altruistic generosity.
Thank you for a clear and concise response. This is what i was looking for.
Zigner
Well-Known Member
Huh? If you aren't entitled to the money, then a "civil litigator" won't be able to do anything. You may ask why, but it is obvious: If you aren't entitled to the money, then you're not entitled to the money.
You say 'legal parent' so does that mean whatever guardianship you have isn't legal? Did you get granted custody via a court order. If not - that's why the parent is getting this money and not you.
The question about disability is pertinent as you stated that the parent who has legal custody has been getting 'social security disability' - so is the parent disabled? Then they don't have to give you any money - legally - if that money is going to them and not for the child. Since it sounds like legally they are the parent and you aren't, they don't have to give you anything.
I am not saying it's right - at all. But when this turned from temporary to permanent you all should have gone to court and gotten custody from the parent who does have custody.
If you can't raise the child, then you are unfortunately going to have to find someone who can or foster care. You're not likely going to get any back pay, as you already stated you were told by a lawyer, so now you decide what's best for the child.
Disabled Vet
Well-Known Member
If the child parent is disabled thru SSD... Then any minor children would split amount that is half of what the parent is getting..... These children would be assigned a Payee who would be required to fill out yearly paperwork showing where this money was spent. This MONEY is for the children care. So... If this parent is getting SSD..... there is money that is suppose to go to the minor children. You need to find that out...
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