- Jurisdiction
- Massachusetts
Interstate case between Tennessee and Massachusetts
Let me begin by saying that my three children are all adults now, but my ex still owes arrears. A court order for child support was issued in TN case # 130326 as part of our divorce in 1991. Around 2000, the non -custodial moved to Massachusetts and an interstate case was established. He hasn't paid anything since 2001. Currently the child support arrears are over $65,000 dollars. His income for the past two yrs have been through VA disability which I understand is protected from any child support actions. I stopped worrying about any regular payments yrs ago before the kids were out of school.
He has been the driver in at least 3 motor vehicle accidents for which he was not at fault and received sizable insurance settlements. He had no shame in bragging about the settlements to my daughter. I researched child support laws in TN and Mass and learned about intercepts of lump sum payments. In 2015, I informed TN and Mass offices that he was involved in another MVA (April 2015) and would receive an insurance settlement believing that all would be done to intercept the proceeds. I checked with the offices in TN and Mass consistently over the months, providing any information I had and checking on updates. I had no communication problems with either agency. I periodically checked the status of my CS case through Massachusetts online resource which had my current arrears and any correspondence that had been sent to my ex.
In March 2016, I noticed that the arrears had been removed, it showed a zero balance,indicating he owed nothing. I called Mass child support and this is when everything got really weird. It was difficult to get anyone to talk to me and when I did I got guarded repetitive answers. Initially, I was just told that the case had been closed due to his limited monthly VA benefits and that Mass had requested that TN close the case. They said that they had the authority to do that. I spoke back and forth with both agencies explaining that I wasn't seeking any reg child support payment from his VA benefits. I finally learned that they were aware of one small(2,000) pending insurance settlement, but I got the impression that it was too insignificant for them to bother with. I spent the next two weeks pleading for the case to be reopened fearing the settlement would be paid while the CS case was closed because I knew that he was getting a settlement greater than $10,000 because of things he told one of my children. I was finally informed by Massachusetts that the arrears had been put back up on the site. Then Mass CS said they needed to know the name of the insurance company paying the settlement in order to intercept. I couldn't get that info but I had learned who was representing my ex in the lawsuit and thought they could contact the law firm for intercept. When I called Mass CS on Thurs April 21, Mass redirected to me to TN to try and intercept. Mass said they didn't have things in place to do anything at this point since the case had been reestablished now as a new case with them. I called TN and the lien dept took the law firm info and said they would send out a notice to them the next day,Friday. Saturday, April 23, 2016, my ex called my daughter to say that his settlement check for over $20,000 was deposited into his financial institution. I had done everything that I could do, but my efforts in were all in vain. My CS case was inactivated from the system long enough for his attorneys to legally get themselves pain and to get my ex's settlement into his account without child support intervention. I feel totally betrayed by the child support system. The system essentially aided and abetted a dead beat dad. Now no one wants to talk to me. Mass has told me to stop calling and to direct my questions to TN only. The TN lien dept has put a lien on his bank account, but I'm not hopeful. It is so frustrating and it's hard for me to find closure because I know that something happened here that wasn't supposed to happen. No one can just give me an honest answer and their lack of willingness to do so affirms my suspicion that they are responsible for this. I may be wrong and would like any input that anyone has.
Let me begin by saying that my three children are all adults now, but my ex still owes arrears. A court order for child support was issued in TN case # 130326 as part of our divorce in 1991. Around 2000, the non -custodial moved to Massachusetts and an interstate case was established. He hasn't paid anything since 2001. Currently the child support arrears are over $65,000 dollars. His income for the past two yrs have been through VA disability which I understand is protected from any child support actions. I stopped worrying about any regular payments yrs ago before the kids were out of school.
He has been the driver in at least 3 motor vehicle accidents for which he was not at fault and received sizable insurance settlements. He had no shame in bragging about the settlements to my daughter. I researched child support laws in TN and Mass and learned about intercepts of lump sum payments. In 2015, I informed TN and Mass offices that he was involved in another MVA (April 2015) and would receive an insurance settlement believing that all would be done to intercept the proceeds. I checked with the offices in TN and Mass consistently over the months, providing any information I had and checking on updates. I had no communication problems with either agency. I periodically checked the status of my CS case through Massachusetts online resource which had my current arrears and any correspondence that had been sent to my ex.
In March 2016, I noticed that the arrears had been removed, it showed a zero balance,indicating he owed nothing. I called Mass child support and this is when everything got really weird. It was difficult to get anyone to talk to me and when I did I got guarded repetitive answers. Initially, I was just told that the case had been closed due to his limited monthly VA benefits and that Mass had requested that TN close the case. They said that they had the authority to do that. I spoke back and forth with both agencies explaining that I wasn't seeking any reg child support payment from his VA benefits. I finally learned that they were aware of one small(2,000) pending insurance settlement, but I got the impression that it was too insignificant for them to bother with. I spent the next two weeks pleading for the case to be reopened fearing the settlement would be paid while the CS case was closed because I knew that he was getting a settlement greater than $10,000 because of things he told one of my children. I was finally informed by Massachusetts that the arrears had been put back up on the site. Then Mass CS said they needed to know the name of the insurance company paying the settlement in order to intercept. I couldn't get that info but I had learned who was representing my ex in the lawsuit and thought they could contact the law firm for intercept. When I called Mass CS on Thurs April 21, Mass redirected to me to TN to try and intercept. Mass said they didn't have things in place to do anything at this point since the case had been reestablished now as a new case with them. I called TN and the lien dept took the law firm info and said they would send out a notice to them the next day,Friday. Saturday, April 23, 2016, my ex called my daughter to say that his settlement check for over $20,000 was deposited into his financial institution. I had done everything that I could do, but my efforts in were all in vain. My CS case was inactivated from the system long enough for his attorneys to legally get themselves pain and to get my ex's settlement into his account without child support intervention. I feel totally betrayed by the child support system. The system essentially aided and abetted a dead beat dad. Now no one wants to talk to me. Mass has told me to stop calling and to direct my questions to TN only. The TN lien dept has put a lien on his bank account, but I'm not hopeful. It is so frustrating and it's hard for me to find closure because I know that something happened here that wasn't supposed to happen. No one can just give me an honest answer and their lack of willingness to do so affirms my suspicion that they are responsible for this. I may be wrong and would like any input that anyone has.
