Posted 02 August 2008 - 11:14 PM
Hi Emerson,
I used to live in Illinois, but don't know about the laws for CS there. I moved to the Missouri side to live with my BF now husband. He had been divorced for 4 years when I met him. His wife already remarried and moved the kids 250 miles to the other side of the State. It was an illegal move according to the State statutes, back then you could only move a child 60 miles away from a bio parent. My husand's ex was so sneaky about the move and had her husband casually tell my husband during one of the kid's soccer games and said they were moving in 2 weeks. If I had known what was going on, I would've told my then BF he could've gotten an emergency cease & desist order so they couldn't move. Sorry just venting.
Anway, they moved and the old visitation sched. was still valid. Since the ex was trying to be sneaky, she never went to court to change it. Since visitations were taking place at her convenience about once a month instead of every other weekend and every Wednesday night, my husband got so distraught. So I told him he needs to drop it and just live with it or file contempt charges against his ex. He chose the latter b/c he wanted to see his kids on a consistent basis and on a schedule so we didn't have to drop everything at the last minute. This gave the ex and opportunity to ask the courts to raise the amount of child support. When my husband got his divorce, he was not ordered to pay anything b/c he was only receiving SSDI and his ex and the kids received checks from Soc. Sec. Somehow the ex found out my husband got a settlement and the money was supposed to help cover any extra things he would need due to his disability.
I gotta tell ya, the family courts are F***ed Up. The first time a male judge presided over the case and looked at my documentation on visitations and things that happened during these visits and phone calls and the judge told the ex, "SHAME ON YOU," and ordered her to adhere to the original visitation schedule for the 2 months it would take to hammer out a new schedule. So she and her idiot sidekick had to drive 250 miles each way to drop the kids off and to take them home. New schedule was made up and no extra money was awarded for child support. Within a month the ex got a new attorney, tried it again and this time there was a female judge. There is a standard form that each BIO parent has to fill out with information of income and expenses. The ex's lawyer subpoenaed my payroll records, but those were inadmissable since I was just the live-in GF. Unfortunately, the ex's new husband's income didn't count either. I believe this is the case in most jurisdictions. It was really unfair b/c my husband had to list the extra income, but as I wrote earlier the extra income was for upcoming expenses that you can't really fill out on this form b/c you don't know what you will need when you are newly disabled. Also, since the ex is materialistic, her expenses for herself and the kids were way out of line. But, the female judge (BITCH) took away more visitation time and came up with this whacked out schedule, my husband was ordered to pay a certain amount every month and half of any medical expenses and to add insult to injury, we had to meet at the halfway mark (drive 125 mi) to pickup the kids and drop them off. As far as visitation goes, they all did whatever they wanted after a couple of months. My husband was finished with taking this to court and just continued to pay the amount he was ordered.
So to finally answer your question (sorry this one obviously opened up an old wound), look up the Illinois State Statutes and you should find something that will give you an idea about child support. I'm sure IL has their own form that each parent has to fill out so the courts can see how to allocate child support. It makes no difference that the mother married a man of wealth. See how much of this you can do yourself. In our case years down the road, I was offically Stepmom, my SS received a partial athletic scholarship to attend a small college. Of course as usual, Bio mom never talked things over with us, there was always a note sent with "This is how much you two owe." We had no idea my SS was going to college. This time we never received a note, the ex called a week before the kid was supposed to start school. She and her idiot husband decided we had to pay for half of what remained unpaid school fees. I looked up the Revised MO Statutes and this time we didn't hire a lawyer. I typed and filed the court documents myself to declare SS emancipated. The statute did read that CS had to be paid while the child was attending school, but it was not mandatory for parents to pay for school fees. I know my SS well enough to know he only went to play sports. He is a terrible student and I was willing to pay for him to take a class at a time at a community college, plus continue child support, but we were never consulted. SS flunked all his classes, got suspended from playing sports and never went back to school.
Keep all receipts for medical expenses and find a good attorney who will clearly explain limitations on funding for parents who are disabled and also complications that arise, which may very well costs thousands of dollars. Don't forget to document everything that goes on. Seems like a pain, but it will help, especially if the custodial parent is being an asshole. Sure kids should be taken care of. I'm all for that. Even during the 7 years I was just the live-in GF, I paid for tons of stuff the kids needed. Seems everytime they came to visit they had torn clothes. I would mend them and if they were really out of shape, I would take them to the store to buy new ones. I also bought tons of gifts for b-days and Christmas too. Good luck and again, sorry about the venting!
Help
Posted 02 August 2008 - 06:54 PM
thanks
