Does he still have to pay her?

[shawkins86]

Jurisdiction

Georgia

We have just received legal temporary guardianship of our 4 year old nephew. This was in front of the probate judge, sworn and signed by both parents to ourselves, the paternal uncle and aunt-in law.

We received guardianship due to the father, who is a truck driver, being gone 5 days a week.(wouldn't win any father of the year awards but still a good dad.) Also, the mother who has not been with the father for close to 3 years, has had a sketchy history of jobs and friends who she would leave our nephew with to go to her imaginary jobs and GED classes, as well as her imaginary cancer doctors. She is very much a pathological liar and hypochondriac.

We got guardianship to establish a better home life for him as well as being able to make medical and school decisions. All the while, having this in place to keep him from her if necessary. Mute point.

My question is, since we have full legal guardianship from both mother and father. Is the father still legally obligated to pay child support to the mother? We do honestly keep him more than she does, and so does the father due to not having any sort of custody arrangement. He just automatically gets him Friday thru Sunday when he gets off the truck.

We dont want the child support. We just dont believe she deserves it.

 

[txls]

If he has court ordered child support then he has to pay it until he goes back to court and gets it removed.

 

[adjusterjack]

Is the father still legally obligated to pay child support to the mother?

Yes, he needs to keep paying until a judge says otherwise.

He needs to go to the court where his child support order was granted and petition the court for a reduction or elimination due to a change in circumstances.

He might be able to find forms and instructions on your local family court website.

Fulton County has a forms and instructions packet for Child Support modification that you can refer to so you know what to look for:

Family Division Form Packets

If your local court doesn't have pre-printed forms he can modify the forms from Fulton County.

It occurs to me that the court might require him to pay you the child support instead of the mother.

People don't get out of their obligations to their children that easily.

 

[shawkins86]

This has all come to play over last couple weeks. Thanks for your replies. Great help. Dad has not been part of this conversation as to whether or not he should pay. Just me and my husband saying what if. He has been wonderful in covering costs such as half of the price of a bunk bed for his son to share a room with our child, as well as spur of the moment after school care due to us both being nurses and 2:30 being a very awkward time to get off work and pick him up from school. So, he's not trying to get out of responsibilities. I was just hoping someone would have child support law input as to how it normally goes when petitioning to stop or transfer support just because of guardianship change and nothing else. What would be a usual decision in such a situation.

 

[adjusterjack]

I was just hoping someone would have child support law input as to how it normally goes when petitioning to stop or transfer support just because of guardianship change and nothing else. What would be a usual decision in such a situation.

Right now he is "obligated" by the court order to continue paying the mother regardless of whether or not she has the child anymore. That's the child support "law."

The "law" (as I have already noted) allows for an adjustment due to a change in circumstances.

That the mother no longer has any custody is such an obvious change in circumstances that it's likely that he will have no trouble getting a reduction, elimination, or transfer to you (the last being more likely).

Whatever contributions he's making to you now is NOT "child support" in the legal sense and he will get no credit for it until the court orders that he pay child support to the current guardians.

I suggest you make the Dad part of the conversation ASAP. It's in his best interest to get the child support money "officially" going to you so he can stop paying the mother (which is the equivalent of throwing the money down the toilet because it's of no benefit to the child).