March 4, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode, Alex Hunt, Managing Attorney at Hunt Law Firm, and Margaret Tucker, Senior Attorney, dive into the top 10 myths about Texas child support. From recalculating child support to understanding income withholding orders, Alex and Margaret debunk common misconceptions and provide valuable insights for both obligors and obligees.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt.
I'm the managing attorney atHunt Law Firm serving the
greater Houston area, and todayI'm joined by Margaret Tucker,
senior attorney at our Katieoffice.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So let's dive right in.
We're going to jump into thetop 10 myths busted about Texas
child support.
But before we get started Iwant to talk a little bit about
child support.
How it's established in TexasMakes it very simple.
Whenever there is a primaryparent, they typically the one
who determines the primaryresidence of the child.
(00:46):
They receive child support fromthe non-primary parent.
The obligor is the parent thatis paying child support to the
obligee and it's determined by avery simple calculation.
You can actually go to theTexas Office of the Attorney
General, click on child supportand they have a calculator on
their website.
It's determined by the obligoror the non-primary parent's
(01:12):
income and then there are somedeductions that are made for how
much health insurance anddental insurance is if there's
anything like union dues andthen there is a calculation for
how much taxes is taken out and,depending on the number of
children that are both in thiscase and any other children that
the obligor has outside of thiscase, there's a percentage
that's applied and that's theamount of child support that is
(01:35):
paid and that's typicallyestablished in either a divorce
proceeding or a suit affectingthe parent-child relationship.
And whenever you're setting uppaternity there's going to be
some sort of child supportcalculation.
But there are a lot of mythsthat are surrounding child
support and we hear a lot ofthem when folks come in for
consultations.
(01:55):
So let's start with the firstone.
The first myth about Texaschild support is that once child
support is established, there'sno way to change it.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, that's incorrect.
So child support can berecalculated.
You're supposed to wait threeyears and they will recalculate
it based on your income.
Now, good news is, if yourincome has gone down, it will be
less, but bad news is, if yourincome has gone up, it will be
more.
So it can be recalculated everythree years and the obligee can
(02:29):
go to the Office of theAttorney General and get them to
recalculate it and they dowhat's called a child support
review and they will recalculateit and you'll have to give your
paycheck stubs and that kind ofthing and they'll look again at
how much you make.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You could also go to a private attorney.
I know the Office of theAttorney General.
There are some good people thatwork there, but it is a
government bureaucracy and ittakes them some time to get
things done maybe longer than itwould take a private attorney.
And so the feedback that wehear from clients and what we
see in our practice is thatoften folks will go to the
(03:02):
Office of the Attorney Generaland they won't hear back or
it'll take them months to getwhat should be fairly simple,
something like a recalculation.
It might take them a littlewhile.
So folks are welcome to comeand see us, come to our office.
We can do a simple modificationand we don't have to wait for
the three years.
If you have a change in lifecircumstances and material and
(03:23):
substantial change and yourincome has decreased
dramatically, you can changeyour child support, because what
the court doesn't want is foryou to just stop paying or stop
paying what you're supposed tobe paying, paying a lesser
amount, and we really don't wantto see that, because if you do
that and you're our client, thenyou put yourself at risk that
(03:44):
you might have an enforcement,you might get held in contempt
and you might be going to courtin an orange jumpsuit.
We don't want to see that.
We want to handle it at theoutset, before it gets to that
point.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I would definitely tell people if there is a change
in circumstance.
Get it done fast 100% Don'twait, because you will be held
accountable for anything, socome, get it changed you will be
held accountable for anything.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So come, get it changed.
So the number two mythsurrounding child support that
we hear is that there's no wayto make sure that your ex will
pay his or her child support.
That couldn't be more false.
There are ways to do itproactively and retroactively.
Reactively the first way to doit proactively is to get an
income withholding order andwhen an income withholding order
and when an income withholdingorder is something that's signed
(04:28):
by the judge at the same timeas a child support order and it
is then sent directly from thecourt to your ex-spouses or the
other parents employer and whatthey'll do is they'll garnish
their wages and they'll send itdirectly to the state
disbursement unit.
So say, for example, the childsupport order says that they
(04:49):
have to pay $500 per month andthe payer gets paid twice a
month.
Then they'll take $250 out ofeach of their paychecks each
month, they'll send it to thestate disbursement unit and then
the Office of the AttorneyGeneral will send that to the
child support recipient.
They'll send it twice a month.
They'll send it either througha little reloadable gift card or
(05:10):
the better option is they'llsend it by direct deposit
directly in your account, andthe great part about this is
this is whether that parent thatis paying child support wants
it or not, if the court ordersit, they're going to be paying
it and it's a good way to makesure that, if they are employed,
that you know that that moneyis going to be coming out, and
(05:31):
if there is any discrepancybetween that amount that's
coming out and what they owe,they have an obligation.
The child support payer has anobligation to make up that
difference and pay it directly.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, I look at it, even if I represent the obligor
, you want an income withholdingorder.
Because the thing is is that youdon't want to run the risk of
running late on child support.
So this way it's taken out ofyour paycheck every single month
.
It's off the top and yourcompany is responsible for doing
it.
Now you need to check to makesure that the income withholding
order has gone through and thatit's pulling out every paycheck
(06:03):
, but then you don't have toworry about it.
You're not late, it's always ontime and it's off out of your
hands.
So, as the obligor, I wouldthink you would want it too.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And in the same way I mentioned the state
disbursement unit.
Tell us a little bit about that, because I think that's good
for the child support payer, theobligor, and the recipient, the
obligee, to have everything gothrough the state disbursement
unit.
Tell us a little bit about thatprocess.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So it is now required that it has to go through them.
But it's an address in SanAntonio and it's in every decree
or sapser that we have, and ittells you where to make your
payments if you're going to makethem directly.
And they are the ones who keeptrack of everything, and that's
the best part to protect bothparties.
You know, you get a loginonline for the Office of the
(06:51):
Attorney General and then youcan see how much is getting paid
, when it's getting paid, andmake sure that everything's.
You know there's no balance,everything's on time,
everything's good, and the StateDisbursement Unit keeps track
of it all.
So, as the obligee, if you'renot getting paid, then they keep
track of it.
If you're the obligor, youbetter be looking too, because
(07:12):
you're responsible.
If, for some reason, that yourjob didn't hold it, you're
responsible for it.
So you need to go on thewebsite and look.
But you can see it all, and sothat's the best part about it,
and so it protects both parties.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So those are the proactive ways.
And then the reactive way ifyou're not getting paid child
support, is that you can do anenforcement, which is simply a
petition to hold the other partythat's not paying child support
in contempt of court for notfollowing the court order.
And that list of payments thatyou mentioned from the state
disbursement unit makes our jobin filing enforcements so much
(07:51):
easier.
And the other thing that listdoes that the state disbursement
unit is keeping track of it isthat the state can do certain
things that private lawyerscan't do as easily.
So, for example, if that sameexample they were supposed to be
paying $500 per month and saythey didn't pay all year, so
they owe $6,000.
And then the next year in Aprilthey file their taxes, they get
(08:15):
a $6,000 refund, the state canautomatically come in and can
garnish that refund that's goingto the child support payer, put
it through the statedisbursement unit and then pay
it out to the child supportrecipient.
That doesn't necessarily in allcases require any type of court
intervention.
They can just do it and it'sbecause they know what's coming
(08:38):
in and what's going out.
Tell us a little bit about achild support enforcement and
how that process works.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
OK, so when we have a obligee come in that we will
start the petition forenforcement or the motion for
enforcement and we take theactivity report that we get from
the Office of the AttorneyGeneral.
It will show what payments weremissed, whether it was half a
payment or you know full payment, what payments were missed,
whether it was half a payment oryou know full payment or you
(09:08):
know if you're paying medicaland dental insurance.
It also shows the cash supportpayments missed or not.
So we can get our total fromthere and then in our petition
we plead for every singleviolation.
So if you're late, if youdidn't pay in full, you can have
on one payment alone, you canhave Three violations.
(09:28):
So enforcements are nothing tomess with because they carry
criminal penalties.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So the problem is is if you are not paying your child
support and you're not payingit on time or you're not paying
it in full, someone can do anenforcement action against you,
and when I say it carriescriminal penalties, I mean that
the court can put you in jailfor it.
So that's why, when we weretalking earlier about if you
have a change of circumstance oryou know some reason you can't
(09:54):
pay your child support, you haveto go back to court to get it
changed If you know, because ifyou're not, you are held
responsible, and you are heldresponsible until you get it
changed.
Until there is an order thatchanges that number, you are
responsible for the full number,and so the court can hold you
in contempt the other thingsthat we were talking about.
(10:15):
The Office of the AttorneyGeneral what can they do to not
only freeze your taxes, but theycan also take away your
passport, they can take awayyour driver's license.
There's a lot of penalties thatcome with not paying child
support.
I always tell people, whetherthey're the obligee or the
obligor, don't mess with childsupport, Do not mess with the
(10:37):
courts, Do not mess with childsupport.
Pay your child support on timeevery time and keep track of it.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Keep track of it.
Good advice.
The number three myth for childsupport in Texas, much to the
chagrin of our child supportpaying clients, is that overtime
doesn't count for child supportcalculations.
Not true.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Not true.
So any type of income that youhave can count for child support
.
Now in Texas we do have a cap.
We have a max and it's $9,200 amonth.
So if you are the obligor andyou make over that amount, you
won't have to pay over thatamount.
(11:19):
And there's a certain amountfor one child or two children,
three children.
But if you're capped and you'reat your max, that is the max.
They change the max every fewyears.
We haven't had a change in awhile, so it might be happening
sometime soon.
But if you're not at max andyou're paying lower than the
maximum amount, it can changebased on any type of income.
(11:40):
So if you make overtime, they'regoing to average it out too.
So we have people that try to.
Here's one paycheck and itdoesn't show any overtime.
Well, that's not going to cutit.
So if you're an hourly workeror something that can have
overtime, we're going to computeany type of overtime, any type
(12:01):
of benefits you get, like you'resaving money on.
You know they give you housingstipends, those kind of things.
That money is still sitting inyour account.
It's going to be considered.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Very good.
The number four myth for childsupport in Texas is that there's
only one way to calculate childsupport in Texas.
This is not true and if youlook at the Office of the
Attorney General's website youwill see a child support
calculator.
They make it as simple as theypossibly can.
But there are other ways tocalculate child support and
(12:36):
particularly if you haveextraordinary circumstances
surrounding your family andsurrounding your kids or you
have children that have specialneeds, it's possible that the
child support that is calculatedunder the Texas Child Support
Calculator, which is listed inTexas Family Code, is not going
to be enough to meet the needsof that child.
Perhaps they need additionalmedical funds, they need
(12:58):
therapies, they need specializededucation.
All of that can be taken intoconsideration and the court can
decide whether they're going todiverge from the child support
calculation, and we've certainlyhad cases like that.
It's extremely rare the courtsdefault to the child support
(13:18):
calculations just so folks knowwhat to expect.
But there's got to be a reallygood reason.
But they will in certaincircumstances.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yes, I mean they can go beyond the child being 18
years old.
They look at those kind ofthings if there's medical needs
or how much possession time youhave of your child.
If you don't see your child andyou're not taking them and
spending money on them outsideof just paying the child support
, the court can go past themaximum that you have and the
(13:51):
guideline support and order more.
Very true.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And we've had clients where we've gone back and we've
asked for a modification andwe've done that.
The child support calculationstypically take into
consideration that the parentthat's paying is going to have
the child, say, 40% of the time.
But if they have the child 10%of the time, then that means
that the primary parent ispaying for more meals.
(14:14):
Their head is laying on apillow under their roof more
days than not and so logically,it makes sense that they might
need to pay a little bit more inchild support to that parent.
All right, the number five mythabout child support in Texas is
that my ex can use childsupport for whatever they want.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So as attorneys we hear things I've heard on the
radio.
People complain and say youknow, I pay my wife child
support and she went on avacation this year and that's
where she uses my child support.
You know I always ask them OK,well, look at your child.
Do they have shoes on theirfeet, you know?
Are they starving?
Are they buying them food?
(14:56):
Do they have a backpack whenthey go to school?
These are the things that childsupport does cover.
And so you know, as the obligee, you know they get to live too,
they can go on vacations andthey can have a life too.
Just because you know theyreceive child support doesn't
mean they don't live.
But child support, you knowthey're really.
(15:17):
You know people ask all the timewhat is child support?
The basic answer is it covers,you know, lodging and food and
necessities for your child.
But it goes on.
Kids are more expensive thanthat, you know.
And so I always tell you knowpeople that you know child
support.
How many backpacks does yourchild need in a year?
If your child signed up forsoccer?
(15:39):
How many times can you signthem up for soccer?
You know, a lot of times.
The primary parent is the onewho does that and they do spend
more money on the child forthings that they need every year
and only maybe they only needone backpack.
So that's where they spend themoney on that kind of thing.
So it's not just food andclothing and lodging, it's other
(16:00):
things.
Kids are expensive and so, butboth parties are able to live
and be free, and so you know,when they sit there and say she
shouldn't be able to go onvacation or he shouldn't be able
to go on of, well, I spent ofthat $500,.
I spent $50 for the backpackand I spent $200 for food.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
There's nothing like that and no court would expect
(16:39):
that either.
So it's really just acalculation of how much does the
court believe that this personwill need under the child
support guidelines or, ifthere's extraordinary
circumstances, how much theywould need to meet the needs of
that child, and then that amountis transferred from the obligor
to the obligee and that'sreally the end of it until it
(17:00):
comes time to modify again, andthen you can make your case in
court again.
But obligors or payers shouldnot expect that there's going to
be any type of accountabilityor documentation of how that
money is being spent.
It's just not the way it worksin Texas.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, the number six myth, and we see this one a
lot.
Unfortunately, some people takeadvantage of this myth, but the
myth is that 50-50 custodymeans no child support, and, in
Texas at least, that is not true.
50-50 custody usually is one oftwo ways Week on, week off,
(17:39):
where one parent has a child forone week and another parent has
a child for another week, or2-2-3, or some people will call
it 2-2-5.
But that's where there's twodays with one parent, two days
with the other parent, and theyswitch off on the remaining
three days, and it essentiallyworks out to 50% of the time
with each parent, and a lot offolks will believe that if it's
(18:01):
50-50 custody, it means thatthere should be no child support
.
That is just not the way theTexas law is structured, though,
and folks need to know thatgoing into court.
There are a number of ways tocalculate child support when
there is 50-50, but one of theimportant things to know is that
50-50 custody is not reallycontemplated in the statute in
(18:22):
Texas law.
Texas law is based around thefact that one party is going to
get a standard possession order,and so there's going to be
first, third and fifth weekend,switching off on the holidays
and then one primary parent willhave the child during the week,
especially during the schoolyear.
There's no nothing in the TexasFamily Code about 50-50.
(18:43):
But there is something thatsays that if parents agree
especially if they get animmediate settlement agreement
for 50-50, then they get to doit, because the parents get to
choose if they have theagreement.
So the question then becomeshow is child support calculated?
And typically the way thatcourts will work this out is
that they will take what wouldthe child support obligation of
(19:05):
parent number one be if theywere paying child support, and
what would the child supportobligation of parent number two
be if they were paying childsupport?
And what would the childsupport obligation of parent
number two be if they werepaying child support?
And then they subtract them,and whichever parent is making
more money is typically the onethat is going to be paying child
support to the other.
Have you seen it calculatedother ways, or is that typically
(19:26):
the way that it works?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think that's typically the way it works.
I mean, you have to rememberthat.
You know, when I tell peoplewho go to mediation if they're
asking for a 50-50, you know ifthere is one side that most
likely would be the primary andthe court is going to award
child support.
So when you're in mediation itkind of is hard to ask for a
(19:56):
50-50 and then say never mindabout child support.
So you know, even if you wentto court and got child support,
I'm asking for a 50-50, but nochild support.
So unless the parties come toan agreement, it's, you know,
it's not likely to happen incourt because it will be a
standard possession order withchild support.
So a lot of times you have toremind the person who would be
(20:19):
the non-primary parent that thisis a negotiation.
And so you know, if you'regoing to get them to do a 50-50,
you may have to pay some childsupport.
And so can it be an arbitrarynumber?
Yes, it can be.
Parties can agree to something.
You know, maybe it was astay-at-home mom or a dad that
was stay-at-home, you know andthey do need the extra funds on
(20:40):
a 50-50.
So if you go to mediation andyou settle for it.
That is part of theconsideration sometimes.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
All right, margaret, number seven, true or false?
If I pay child support, I don'tneed to pay anything else.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
We get asked this a lot because I'll have people
come in and say you know Ibought them shoes and I bought
them clothes and I bought.
You know I paid for soccer andI paid for this.
I shouldn't have to pay forchild support no-transcript each
(21:24):
and every time and most orderswill say there's no credit for
informal payments.
And that's what we mean byinformal payments.
We mean did you buy the child,you know, shoes?
Did you buy the child?
You know a soccer season?
Did you buy him cleats?
Those are all things you'regiving to your child and that's
wonderful, you know.
But it doesn't count as childsupport.
(21:46):
So you can't subtract theamount.
You can't get around the amount, pay the full amount, but those
are things that you're givingdirectly to your child.
So if you buy them things whichI think every parent ends up
doing it doesn't count as childsupport.
So you need to buy them theother things, but don't subtract
it from your child supportpayment.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Absolutely.
And the other consideration isthat medical and dental and
vision expenses are also laidout in the order and those are
typically shared between theparties.
Typically they're sharedequally, so each party will be
paying 50-50.
But that's a negotiating pointor, depending on the
circumstances of the parties,the court can actually make that
(22:27):
skewed to one side or the other.
But any unreimbursed medicalexpenses so I'm talking about
co-pays or anything that's notpaid for by insurance is going
to be in addition to childsupport.
Under Texas law, all rightnumber eight.
Well, you'll know this is amyth as soon as I say it If I
(22:48):
don't pay my child support, noone can do anything about it.
We mentioned earlier that thereare something called an
enforcement or motion forcontempt where if you don't pay
your child support, you'llprobably receive either from the
Office of the Attorney Generalor from a private lawyer we
handle these all the time and wedefend these all the time.
(23:10):
You'll receive a petition forenforcement where the other side
is trying to get a court toeither one, reduce what you owe
to a money judgment so that theycan go and try to get their
money paid, or two, somethingthat can't be done If you don't
pay your credit card bill, theycan try to get a money judgment.
(23:30):
If you don't pay your childsupport, they could try to get a
money judgment, but they canalso seek other penalties up to
and including putting you injail offenses is that you have
expended every possible avenueto pay that debt.
(23:51):
So I don't just mean you knowwell, I lost my job and I don't
have any money.
I mean you have to show that youhave spent every dollar in your
bank account and you have totry to show that you have tried
to get a loan from every whichplace you possibly could Family
members, banks, credit cards,everything.
It's a pretty high burden, andso there's definitely things
(24:14):
that can be done and will bedone.
And then, in addition to that,the Office of the Attorney
General has some special toolsthat they can use if you don't
pay your child support.
Some of these are available toprivate attorneys.
The one that I mentioned abouttaking your tax refund the
office of the attorney generalcan do that.
We've done this in a few casesprivately, and the attorney
(24:36):
general can do it too is if youhave a professional license, you
can get that license removed orrevoked as a result of the fact
that you don't pay your childsupport.
So if you're a barber or you'rea doctor or you're a lawyer or
you're a CPA, your verylivelihood could be in jeopardy
if you don't pay your childsupport, and it's something that
(24:57):
you need to be very carefulabout.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And I think you know what people sometimes don't look
at is you know it is a lot ofmoney to come out of your
paycheck each month and it youknow it is a hardship sometimes
to pay child support.
But the thing that you know Iwish people would consider is
(25:20):
that you know if you don't payyour child support, then that
means the obligee has to pay foreverything.
So the problem is is that youknow the courts look at it like
OK, I guess your circumstancesare this way, but that just
defaults.
That means the obligee has tocome up with all the money.
Where do they get their moneyfrom?
And so you know you're hopingthat the obligee can take care
(25:42):
of the child and so the courtsreally do not have a lot of
sympathy for it.
So that's why if you need to goback in and change it, you've
got to get it done, because theydon't have a lot of sympathy
for it.
They want to see that you dideverything you can and we'll
have people come in or we'll beup against obligors that are
(26:04):
like I lost my job and so theydon't pay anything, or they get
a lower paying job and theystill don't pay anything and
it's like okay, but you werereceiving a lesser salary so you
needed to pay something.
So the courts really are notfriendly towards not paying, so
(26:25):
you have to do everything inyour power to pay that child
support.
So, even if it's a lesseramount, pay something there's
kind of an upheaval there.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
The last thing that you want to do is go to court
and involve either an ex-spouseor the other parent into this
(26:54):
miserable situation.
But the sooner you can do itthe better.
Because if, say, you lose yourjob in January and you've got
$500 a month child supportpayments to make but you don't
go until July, well, the courtis not going to go back to
January and is going to say well, you didn't have a job, so you
don't have to pay anything forthose months.
It starts when you actuallyfile.
(27:15):
So you need to file in Januaryand modify it immediately,
because there's no going back intime.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
You have a violation against you, yeah, and so I mean
, the more violations you haveand the you know, unless you can
show that you were doing yourbest to try to pay something,
there's just not a lot ofsympathy.
And so you have to go back in.
And the other part to say isit's also 6% interest compounded
(27:42):
every month.
So when you miss $500 by thenext month, now you're already
paying, you know whatever?
A hundred, few hundred dollarsmore.
So your problem is compoundingeach and every month at 6%.
It is shocking how fast theinterest rate you know makes the
(28:03):
money so much higher.
And you sit there and go oh mygosh, if you had just been able
to pay the $500 back then, itwas.
Now you've got a much largerproblem because you know it's
$10,000 before you know it.
And now you have a problem howare you ever going to pay
$10,000?
And so nip it in the bud at thevery beginning.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well, not to belabor the point.
But number nine is if I lose myjob and can't pay my child
support, I'm screwed.
We talked about that.
Definitely not the case.
You can go and you can modify.
The court is going to adjustyour child support if you are
truly unable to pay because youlost your job.
And you know the court is goingto make sure that you don't
(28:46):
have these violations that areaccruing and accruing.
So definitely go back.
The final myth number 10 mythwith Texas child support is if I
get a lower paying job, I don'thave to pay.
And it's a double-edged swordbecause if you get a lower
paying job, the court willcertainly adjust your child
(29:07):
support.
However, we've heard this fromfolks before where they say well
, fine, I'm a doctor now, butI'm going to go work at Burger
King and I'm going to get paid$7.25 an hour, so I'm not going
to have to pay you anything forchild support.
And while we've never hadanybody do that, we have had
folks that have intentionallylowered their standard of living
(29:28):
and lowered the amount of moneythat they have coming in just
to reduce their child supportobligation.
But there's something in Texaslaw that accounts for that and
it's called intentionalunderemployment.
And if you are intentionallyunderemployed, if you've got a
good lawyer, they're going toargue that you did that on
purpose and there's no reasonthat the person receiving child
(29:48):
support should have to bear theconsequences of that and they're
going to make you responsiblefor what you should have been
responsible for if you kept yourhigher paying job.
We've also had cases wherefolks have become intentionally
unemployed.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, it's the same kind of thing.
I mean you're assuming thecourt is not going to notice.
So you know, the court has seenit all.
They've seen people becomeunderemployed.
They've had people becomeunemployed.
They again not a lot ofsympathy.
You're going to have to showthe court that you've been doing
(30:27):
everything in your power to geta new job, that you've been
trying to pay your child support, that kind of thing.
But if you can't and you'redoing it on purpose what the
court does is they will takeyour old salary and they will
(30:52):
set child support based on yourold salary.
So now you're kind of in apickle because, maybe you don't
have that same job that you didbefore and the court is going to
set that amount for that higheramount of salary.
So there's just not a lot ofsympathy.
So again, don't play games.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I'd say, overall, spite is probably never a good
strategy.
Yes, that being said, we havehad some clients that have
become concerned that they'regoing to be pinned for
intentional underemployment orintentional unemployment when,
say, they have a job, but thenthey decide I'm going to go back
to school, I'm going to learnhow to be a teacher, I'm going
to go to education school, andand though you know, like
(31:34):
anything in the law, there aregray areas, there are nuances.
We have had success arguingthat somebody has, yes, they're
getting a lower salary, but it'sbecause they're trying to
better themselves or their lifesituation, or they're finding
employment, trying to findemployment in an area that just
makes them happier.
There are situations where I'vebeen able to argue and the
(31:56):
court has said that is okay.
It's okay to go back to schoolbecause you're obviously not
doing it to just have to payless child support.
Well, margaret, thank you somuch for joining me.
It's always a pleasure and foranybody out there that's
listening.
If you like this video, please.
If you're watching on YouTube,hit the like button below, and
(32:18):
if you are watching this onApple Podcasts or on Spotify or
anywhere else that you get yourpodcasts, please like it,
subscribe, give us five stars.
We'd really appreciate it.
If you're looking for our firm,hunt Law Firm, in the greater
Houston area, we've got officesin Katy Cypress, sugar Land and
League City and you can find usat familylawyerkatycom or by
(32:39):
calling us at 832-315-5494.
See you next time.
Welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt.
I'm the managing attorney atHunt Law Firm serving the
greater Houston area, and todayI'm joined by Margaret Tucker,
senior attorney at our Katieoffice.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So let's dive right in.
We're going to jump into thetop 10 myths busted about Texas
child support.
But before we get started Iwant to talk a little bit about
child support.
How it's established in TexasMakes it very simple.
Whenever there is a primaryparent, they typically the one
who determines the primaryresidence of the child.
(00:46):
They receive child support fromthe non-primary parent.
The obligor is the parent thatis paying child support to the
obligee and it's determined by avery simple calculation.
You can actually go to theTexas Office of the Attorney
General, click on child supportand they have a calculator on
their website.
It's determined by the obligoror the non-primary parent's
(01:12):
income and then there are somedeductions that are made for how
much health insurance anddental insurance is if there's
anything like union dues andthen there is a calculation for
how much taxes is taken out and,depending on the number of
children that are both in thiscase and any other children that
the obligor has outside of thiscase, there's a percentage
that's applied and that's theamount of child support that is
(01:35):
paid and that's typicallyestablished in either a divorce
proceeding or a suit affectingthe parent-child relationship.
And whenever you're setting uppaternity there's going to be
some sort of child supportcalculation.
But there are a lot of mythsthat are surrounding child
support and we hear a lot ofthem when folks come in for
consultations.
(01:55):
So let's start with the firstone.
The first myth about Texaschild support is that once child
support is established, there'sno way to change it.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, that's incorrect.
So child support can berecalculated.
You're supposed to wait threeyears and they will recalculate
it based on your income.
Now, good news is, if yourincome has gone down, it will be
less, but bad news is, if yourincome has gone up, it will be
more.
So it can be recalculated everythree years and the obligee can
(02:29):
go to the Office of theAttorney General and get them to
recalculate it and they dowhat's called a child support
review and they will recalculateit and you'll have to give your
paycheck stubs and that kind ofthing and they'll look again at
how much you make.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
You could also go to a private attorney.
I know the Office of theAttorney General.
There are some good people thatwork there, but it is a
government bureaucracy and ittakes them some time to get
things done maybe longer than itwould take a private attorney.
And so the feedback that wehear from clients and what we
see in our practice is thatoften folks will go to the
(03:02):
Office of the Attorney Generaland they won't hear back or
it'll take them months to getwhat should be fairly simple,
something like a recalculation.
It might take them a littlewhile.
So folks are welcome to comeand see us, come to our office.
We can do a simple modificationand we don't have to wait for
the three years.
If you have a change in lifecircumstances and material and
(03:23):
substantial change and yourincome has decreased
dramatically, you can changeyour child support, because what
the court doesn't want is foryou to just stop paying or stop
paying what you're supposed tobe paying, paying a lesser
amount, and we really don't wantto see that, because if you do
that and you're our client, thenyou put yourself at risk that
(03:44):
you might have an enforcement,you might get held in contempt
and you might be going to courtin an orange jumpsuit.
We don't want to see that.
We want to handle it at theoutset, before it gets to that
point.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I would definitely tell people if there is a change
in circumstance.
Get it done fast 100% Don'twait, because you will be held
accountable for anything, socome, get it changed you will be
held accountable for anything.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So come, get it changed.
So the number two mythsurrounding child support that
we hear is that there's no wayto make sure that your ex will
pay his or her child support.
That couldn't be more false.
There are ways to do itproactively and retroactively.
Reactively the first way to doit proactively is to get an
income withholding order andwhen an income withholding order
and when an income withholdingorder is something that's signed
(04:28):
by the judge at the same timeas a child support order and it
is then sent directly from thecourt to your ex-spouses or the
other parents employer and whatthey'll do is they'll garnish
their wages and they'll send itdirectly to the state
disbursement unit.
So say, for example, the childsupport order says that they
(04:49):
have to pay $500 per month andthe payer gets paid twice a
month.
Then they'll take $250 out ofeach of their paychecks each
month, they'll send it to thestate disbursement unit and then
the Office of the AttorneyGeneral will send that to the
child support recipient.
They'll send it twice a month.
They'll send it either througha little reloadable gift card or
(05:10):
the better option is they'llsend it by direct deposit
directly in your account, andthe great part about this is
this is whether that parent thatis paying child support wants
it or not, if the court ordersit, they're going to be paying
it and it's a good way to makesure that, if they are employed,
that you know that that moneyis going to be coming out, and
(05:31):
if there is any discrepancybetween that amount that's
coming out and what they owe,they have an obligation.
The child support payer has anobligation to make up that
difference and pay it directly.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, I look at it, even if I represent the obligor
, you want an income withholdingorder.
Because the thing is is that youdon't want to run the risk of
running late on child support.
So this way it's taken out ofyour paycheck every single month
.
It's off the top and yourcompany is responsible for doing
it.
Now you need to check to makesure that the income withholding
order has gone through and thatit's pulling out every paycheck
(06:03):
, but then you don't have toworry about it.
You're not late, it's always ontime and it's off out of your
hands.
So, as the obligor, I wouldthink you would want it too.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And in the same way I mentioned the state
disbursement unit.
Tell us a little bit about that, because I think that's good
for the child support payer, theobligor, and the recipient, the
obligee, to have everything gothrough the state disbursement
unit.
Tell us a little bit about thatprocess.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So it is now required that it has to go through them.
But it's an address in SanAntonio and it's in every decree
or sapser that we have, and ittells you where to make your
payments if you're going to makethem directly.
And they are the ones who keeptrack of everything, and that's
the best part to protect bothparties.
You know, you get a loginonline for the Office of the
(06:51):
Attorney General and then youcan see how much is getting paid
, when it's getting paid, andmake sure that everything's.
You know there's no balance,everything's on time,
everything's good, and the StateDisbursement Unit keeps track
of it all.
So, as the obligee, if you'renot getting paid, then they keep
track of it.
If you're the obligor, youbetter be looking too, because
(07:12):
you're responsible.
If, for some reason, that yourjob didn't hold it, you're
responsible for it.
So you need to go on thewebsite and look.
But you can see it all, and sothat's the best part about it,
and so it protects both parties.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So those are the proactive ways.
And then the reactive way ifyou're not getting paid child
support, is that you can do anenforcement, which is simply a
petition to hold the other partythat's not paying child support
in contempt of court for notfollowing the court order.
And that list of payments thatyou mentioned from the state
disbursement unit makes our jobin filing enforcements so much
(07:51):
easier.
And the other thing that listdoes that the state disbursement
unit is keeping track of it isthat the state can do certain
things that private lawyerscan't do as easily.
So, for example, if that sameexample they were supposed to be
paying $500 per month and saythey didn't pay all year, so
they owe $6,000.
And then the next year in Aprilthey file their taxes, they get
(08:15):
a $6,000 refund, the state canautomatically come in and can
garnish that refund that's goingto the child support payer, put
it through the statedisbursement unit and then pay
it out to the child supportrecipient.
That doesn't necessarily in allcases require any type of court
intervention.
They can just do it and it'sbecause they know what's coming
(08:38):
in and what's going out.
Tell us a little bit about achild support enforcement and
how that process works.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
OK, so when we have a obligee come in that we will
start the petition forenforcement or the motion for
enforcement and we take theactivity report that we get from
the Office of the AttorneyGeneral.
It will show what payments weremissed, whether it was half a
payment or you know full payment, what payments were missed,
whether it was half a payment oryou know full payment or you
(09:08):
know if you're paying medicaland dental insurance.
It also shows the cash supportpayments missed or not.
So we can get our total fromthere and then in our petition
we plead for every singleviolation.
So if you're late, if youdidn't pay in full, you can have
on one payment alone, you canhave Three violations.
(09:28):
So enforcements are nothing tomess with because they carry
criminal penalties.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So the problem is is if you are not paying your child
support and you're not payingit on time or you're not paying
it in full, someone can do anenforcement action against you,
and when I say it carriescriminal penalties, I mean that
the court can put you in jailfor it.
So that's why, when we weretalking earlier about if you
have a change of circumstance oryou know some reason you can't
(09:54):
pay your child support, you haveto go back to court to get it
changed If you know, because ifyou're not, you are held
responsible, and you are heldresponsible until you get it
changed.
Until there is an order thatchanges that number, you are
responsible for the full number,and so the court can hold you
in contempt the other thingsthat we were talking about.
(10:15):
The Office of the AttorneyGeneral what can they do to not
only freeze your taxes, but theycan also take away your
passport, they can take awayyour driver's license.
There's a lot of penalties thatcome with not paying child
support.
I always tell people, whetherthey're the obligee or the
obligor, don't mess with childsupport, Do not mess with the
(10:37):
courts, Do not mess with childsupport.
Pay your child support on timeevery time and keep track of it.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Keep track of it.
Good advice.
The number three myth for childsupport in Texas, much to the
chagrin of our child supportpaying clients, is that overtime
doesn't count for child supportcalculations.
Not true.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Not true.
So any type of income that youhave can count for child support
.
Now in Texas we do have a cap.
We have a max and it's $9,200 amonth.
So if you are the obligor andyou make over that amount, you
won't have to pay over thatamount.
(11:19):
And there's a certain amountfor one child or two children,
three children.
But if you're capped and you'reat your max, that is the max.
They change the max every fewyears.
We haven't had a change in awhile, so it might be happening
sometime soon.
But if you're not at max andyou're paying lower than the
maximum amount, it can changebased on any type of income.
(11:40):
So if you make overtime, they'regoing to average it out too.
So we have people that try to.
Here's one paycheck and itdoesn't show any overtime.
Well, that's not going to cutit.
So if you're an hourly workeror something that can have
overtime, we're going to computeany type of overtime, any type
(12:01):
of benefits you get, like you'resaving money on.
You know they give you housingstipends, those kind of things.
That money is still sitting inyour account.
It's going to be considered.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Very good.
The number four myth for childsupport in Texas is that there's
only one way to calculate childsupport in Texas.
This is not true and if youlook at the Office of the
Attorney General's website youwill see a child support
calculator.
They make it as simple as theypossibly can.
But there are other ways tocalculate child support and
(12:36):
particularly if you haveextraordinary circumstances
surrounding your family andsurrounding your kids or you
have children that have specialneeds, it's possible that the
child support that is calculatedunder the Texas Child Support
Calculator, which is listed inTexas Family Code, is not going
to be enough to meet the needsof that child.
Perhaps they need additionalmedical funds, they need
(12:58):
therapies, they need specializededucation.
All of that can be taken intoconsideration and the court can
decide whether they're going todiverge from the child support
calculation, and we've certainlyhad cases like that.
It's extremely rare the courtsdefault to the child support
(13:18):
calculations just so folks knowwhat to expect.
But there's got to be a reallygood reason.
But they will in certaincircumstances.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yes, I mean they can go beyond the child being 18
years old.
They look at those kind ofthings if there's medical needs
or how much possession time youhave of your child.
If you don't see your child andyou're not taking them and
spending money on them outsideof just paying the child support
, the court can go past themaximum that you have and the
(13:51):
guideline support and order more.
Very true.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And we've had clients where we've gone back and we've
asked for a modification andwe've done that.
The child support calculationstypically take into
consideration that the parentthat's paying is going to have
the child, say, 40% of the time.
But if they have the child 10%of the time, then that means
that the primary parent ispaying for more meals.
(14:14):
Their head is laying on apillow under their roof more
days than not and so logically,it makes sense that they might
need to pay a little bit more inchild support to that parent.
All right, the number five mythabout child support in Texas is
that my ex can use childsupport for whatever they want.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So as attorneys we hear things I've heard on the
radio.
People complain and say youknow, I pay my wife child
support and she went on avacation this year and that's
where she uses my child support.
You know I always ask them OK,well, look at your child.
Do they have shoes on theirfeet, you know?
Are they starving?
Are they buying them food?
(14:56):
Do they have a backpack whenthey go to school?
These are the things that childsupport does cover.
And so you know, as the obligee, you know they get to live too,
they can go on vacations andthey can have a life too.
Just because you know theyreceive child support doesn't
mean they don't live.
But child support, you knowthey're really.
(15:17):
You know people ask all the timewhat is child support?
The basic answer is it covers,you know, lodging and food and
necessities for your child.
But it goes on.
Kids are more expensive thanthat, you know.
And so I always tell you knowpeople that you know child
support.
How many backpacks does yourchild need in a year?
If your child signed up forsoccer?
(15:39):
How many times can you signthem up for soccer?
You know, a lot of times.
The primary parent is the onewho does that and they do spend
more money on the child forthings that they need every year
and only maybe they only needone backpack.
So that's where they spend themoney on that kind of thing.
So it's not just food andclothing and lodging, it's other
(16:00):
things.
Kids are expensive and so, butboth parties are able to live
and be free, and so you know,when they sit there and say she
shouldn't be able to go onvacation or he shouldn't be able
to go on of, well, I spent ofthat $500,.
I spent $50 for the backpackand I spent $200 for food.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
There's nothing like that and no court would expect
(16:39):
that either.
So it's really just acalculation of how much does the
court believe that this personwill need under the child
support guidelines or, ifthere's extraordinary
circumstances, how much theywould need to meet the needs of
that child, and then that amountis transferred from the obligor
to the obligee and that'sreally the end of it until it
(17:00):
comes time to modify again, andthen you can make your case in
court again.
But obligors or payers shouldnot expect that there's going to
be any type of accountabilityor documentation of how that
money is being spent.
It's just not the way it worksin Texas.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, the number six myth, and we see this one a
lot.
Unfortunately, some people takeadvantage of this myth, but the
myth is that 50-50 custodymeans no child support, and, in
Texas at least, that is not true.
50-50 custody usually is one oftwo ways Week on, week off,
(17:39):
where one parent has a child forone week and another parent has
a child for another week, or2-2-3, or some people will call
it 2-2-5.
But that's where there's twodays with one parent, two days
with the other parent, and theyswitch off on the remaining
three days, and it essentiallyworks out to 50% of the time
with each parent, and a lot offolks will believe that if it's
(18:01):
50-50 custody, it means thatthere should be no child support
.
That is just not the way theTexas law is structured, though,
and folks need to know thatgoing into court.
There are a number of ways tocalculate child support when
there is 50-50, but one of theimportant things to know is that
50-50 custody is not reallycontemplated in the statute in
(18:22):
Texas law.
Texas law is based around thefact that one party is going to
get a standard possession order,and so there's going to be
first, third and fifth weekend,switching off on the holidays
and then one primary parent willhave the child during the week,
especially during the schoolyear.
There's no nothing in the TexasFamily Code about 50-50.
(18:43):
But there is something thatsays that if parents agree
especially if they get animmediate settlement agreement
for 50-50, then they get to doit, because the parents get to
choose if they have theagreement.
So the question then becomeshow is child support calculated?
And typically the way thatcourts will work this out is
that they will take what wouldthe child support obligation of
(19:05):
parent number one be if theywere paying child support, and
what would the child supportobligation of parent number two
be if they were paying childsupport?
And what would the childsupport obligation of parent
number two be if they werepaying child support?
And then they subtract them,and whichever parent is making
more money is typically the onethat is going to be paying child
support to the other.
Have you seen it calculatedother ways, or is that typically
(19:26):
the way that it works?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think that's typically the way it works.
I mean, you have to rememberthat.
You know, when I tell peoplewho go to mediation if they're
asking for a 50-50, you know ifthere is one side that most
likely would be the primary andthe court is going to award
child support.
So when you're in mediation itkind of is hard to ask for a
(19:56):
50-50 and then say never mindabout child support.
So you know, even if you wentto court and got child support,
I'm asking for a 50-50, but nochild support.
So unless the parties come toan agreement, it's, you know,
it's not likely to happen incourt because it will be a
standard possession order withchild support.
So a lot of times you have toremind the person who would be
(20:19):
the non-primary parent that thisis a negotiation.
And so you know, if you'regoing to get them to do a 50-50,
you may have to pay some childsupport.
And so can it be an arbitrarynumber?
Yes, it can be.
Parties can agree to something.
You know, maybe it was astay-at-home mom or a dad that
was stay-at-home, you know andthey do need the extra funds on
(20:40):
a 50-50.
So if you go to mediation andyou settle for it.
That is part of theconsideration sometimes.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
All right, margaret, number seven, true or false?
If I pay child support, I don'tneed to pay anything else.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
We get asked this a lot because I'll have people
come in and say you know Ibought them shoes and I bought
them clothes and I bought.
You know I paid for soccer andI paid for this.
I shouldn't have to pay forchild support no-transcript each
(21:24):
and every time and most orderswill say there's no credit for
informal payments.
And that's what we mean byinformal payments.
We mean did you buy the child,you know, shoes?
Did you buy the child?
You know a soccer season?
Did you buy him cleats?
Those are all things you'regiving to your child and that's
wonderful, you know.
But it doesn't count as childsupport.
(21:46):
So you can't subtract theamount.
You can't get around the amount, pay the full amount, but those
are things that you're givingdirectly to your child.
So if you buy them things whichI think every parent ends up
doing it doesn't count as childsupport.
So you need to buy them theother things, but don't subtract
it from your child supportpayment.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Absolutely.
And the other consideration isthat medical and dental and
vision expenses are also laidout in the order and those are
typically shared between theparties.
Typically they're sharedequally, so each party will be
paying 50-50.
But that's a negotiating pointor, depending on the
circumstances of the parties,the court can actually make that
(22:27):
skewed to one side or the other.
But any unreimbursed medicalexpenses so I'm talking about
co-pays or anything that's notpaid for by insurance is going
to be in addition to childsupport.
Under Texas law, all rightnumber eight.
Well, you'll know this is amyth as soon as I say it If I
(22:48):
don't pay my child support, noone can do anything about it.
We mentioned earlier that thereare something called an
enforcement or motion forcontempt where if you don't pay
your child support, you'llprobably receive either from the
Office of the Attorney Generalor from a private lawyer we
handle these all the time and wedefend these all the time.
(23:10):
You'll receive a petition forenforcement where the other side
is trying to get a court toeither one, reduce what you owe
to a money judgment so that theycan go and try to get their
money paid, or two, somethingthat can't be done If you don't
pay your credit card bill, theycan try to get a money judgment.
(23:30):
If you don't pay your childsupport, they could try to get a
money judgment, but they canalso seek other penalties up to
and including putting you injail offenses is that you have
expended every possible avenueto pay that debt.
(23:51):
So I don't just mean you knowwell, I lost my job and I don't
have any money.
I mean you have to show that youhave spent every dollar in your
bank account and you have totry to show that you have tried
to get a loan from every whichplace you possibly could Family
members, banks, credit cards,everything.
It's a pretty high burden, andso there's definitely things
(24:14):
that can be done and will bedone.
And then, in addition to that,the Office of the Attorney
General has some special toolsthat they can use if you don't
pay your child support.
Some of these are available toprivate attorneys.
The one that I mentioned abouttaking your tax refund the
office of the attorney generalcan do that.
We've done this in a few casesprivately, and the attorney
(24:36):
general can do it too is if youhave a professional license, you
can get that license removed orrevoked as a result of the fact
that you don't pay your childsupport.
So if you're a barber or you'rea doctor or you're a lawyer or
you're a CPA, your verylivelihood could be in jeopardy
if you don't pay your childsupport, and it's something that
(24:57):
you need to be very carefulabout.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And I think you know what people sometimes don't look
at is you know it is a lot ofmoney to come out of your
paycheck each month and it youknow it is a hardship sometimes
to pay child support.
But the thing that you know Iwish people would consider is
(25:20):
that you know if you don't payyour child support, then that
means the obligee has to pay foreverything.
So the problem is is that youknow the courts look at it like
OK, I guess your circumstancesare this way, but that just
defaults.
That means the obligee has tocome up with all the money.
Where do they get their moneyfrom?
And so you know you're hopingthat the obligee can take care
(25:42):
of the child and so the courtsreally do not have a lot of
sympathy for it.
So that's why if you need to goback in and change it, you've
got to get it done, because theydon't have a lot of sympathy
for it.
They want to see that you dideverything you can and we'll
have people come in or we'll beup against obligors that are
(26:04):
like I lost my job and so theydon't pay anything, or they get
a lower paying job and theystill don't pay anything and
it's like okay, but you werereceiving a lesser salary so you
needed to pay something.
So the courts really are notfriendly towards not paying, so
(26:25):
you have to do everything inyour power to pay that child
support.
So, even if it's a lesseramount, pay something there's
kind of an upheaval there.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
The last thing that you want to do is go to court
and involve either an ex-spouseor the other parent into this
(26:54):
miserable situation.
But the sooner you can do itthe better.
Because if, say, you lose yourjob in January and you've got
$500 a month child supportpayments to make but you don't
go until July, well, the courtis not going to go back to
January and is going to say well, you didn't have a job, so you
don't have to pay anything forthose months.
It starts when you actuallyfile.
(27:15):
So you need to file in Januaryand modify it immediately,
because there's no going back intime.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
You have a violation against you, yeah, and so I mean
, the more violations you haveand the you know, unless you can
show that you were doing yourbest to try to pay something,
there's just not a lot ofsympathy.
And so you have to go back in.
And the other part to say isit's also 6% interest compounded
(27:42):
every month.
So when you miss $500 by thenext month, now you're already
paying, you know whatever?
A hundred, few hundred dollarsmore.
So your problem is compoundingeach and every month at 6%.
It is shocking how fast theinterest rate you know makes the
(28:03):
money so much higher.
And you sit there and go oh mygosh, if you had just been able
to pay the $500 back then, itwas.
Now you've got a much largerproblem because you know it's
$10,000 before you know it.
And now you have a problem howare you ever going to pay
$10,000?
And so nip it in the bud at thevery beginning.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well, not to belabor the point.
But number nine is if I lose myjob and can't pay my child
support, I'm screwed.
We talked about that.
Definitely not the case.
You can go and you can modify.
The court is going to adjustyour child support if you are
truly unable to pay because youlost your job.
And you know the court is goingto make sure that you don't
(28:46):
have these violations that areaccruing and accruing.
So definitely go back.
The final myth number 10 mythwith Texas child support is if I
get a lower paying job, I don'thave to pay.
And it's a double-edged swordbecause if you get a lower
paying job, the court willcertainly adjust your child
(29:07):
support.
However, we've heard this fromfolks before where they say well
, fine, I'm a doctor now, butI'm going to go work at Burger
King and I'm going to get paid$7.25 an hour, so I'm not going
to have to pay you anything forchild support.
And while we've never hadanybody do that, we have had
folks that have intentionallylowered their standard of living
(29:28):
and lowered the amount of moneythat they have coming in just
to reduce their child supportobligation.
But there's something in Texaslaw that accounts for that and
it's called intentionalunderemployment.
And if you are intentionallyunderemployed, if you've got a
good lawyer, they're going toargue that you did that on
purpose and there's no reasonthat the person receiving child
(29:48):
support should have to bear theconsequences of that and they're
going to make you responsiblefor what you should have been
responsible for if you kept yourhigher paying job.
We've also had cases wherefolks have become intentionally
unemployed.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, it's the same kind of thing.
I mean you're assuming thecourt is not going to notice.
So you know, the court has seenit all.
They've seen people becomeunderemployed.
They've had people becomeunemployed.
They again not a lot ofsympathy.
You're going to have to showthe court that you've been doing
(30:27):
everything in your power to geta new job, that you've been
trying to pay your child support, that kind of thing.
But if you can't and you'redoing it on purpose what the
court does is they will takeyour old salary and they will
(30:52):
set child support based on yourold salary.
So now you're kind of in apickle because, maybe you don't
have that same job that you didbefore and the court is going to
set that amount for that higheramount of salary.
So there's just not a lot ofsympathy.
So again, don't play games.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I'd say, overall, spite is probably never a good
strategy.
Yes, that being said, we havehad some clients that have
become concerned that they'regoing to be pinned for
intentional underemployment orintentional unemployment when,
say, they have a job, but thenthey decide I'm going to go back
to school, I'm going to learnhow to be a teacher, I'm going
to go to education school, andand though you know, like
(31:34):
anything in the law, there aregray areas, there are nuances.
We have had success arguingthat somebody has, yes, they're
getting a lower salary, but it'sbecause they're trying to
better themselves or their lifesituation, or they're finding
employment, trying to findemployment in an area that just
makes them happier.
There are situations where I'vebeen able to argue and the
(31:56):
court has said that is okay.
It's okay to go back to schoolbecause you're obviously not
doing it to just have to payless child support.
Well, margaret, thank you somuch for joining me.
It's always a pleasure and foranybody out there that's
listening.
If you like this video, please.
If you're watching on YouTube,hit the like button below, and
(32:18):
if you are watching this onApple Podcasts or on Spotify or
anywhere else that you get yourpodcasts, please like it,
subscribe, give us five stars.
We'd really appreciate it.
If you're looking for our firm,hunt Law Firm, in the greater
Houston area, we've got officesin Katy Cypress, sugar Land and
League City and you can find usat familylawyerkatycom or by
(32:39):
calling us at 832-315-5494.
See you next time.
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