Child Custody Modification Forms Texas: Fill & Download for Free

Dead beat dads are myth or hoax.Behind on Child support subject the following:owe $2,500 or more passport invalided or unable to get a passportSubject to extradition between states for violating court orderDriver and business license suspendedJail timereal asset liens example houses etc.Federal law they can ask fro up to I believe 60% of gross income.Tax garnishmentBradley amendment"The 1986 Bradley Amendment to Title IV-D forbids any reduction of arrearage or retroactive reduction for any reason, ever. This reinforces the approach that inability to pay is no excuse. Needless to say, there are endless stories of men who are now crushed by a debt they will never be able to pay because they were:In a comaA captive of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf WarIn jailMedically incapacitatedLost their job but were confident of another so did nothing until it was too lateDid not know they could not ask for retroactive adjustments and waited too longCould not afford a lawyer to seek adjustment when adjustment was warrantedWouldn’t use the legal system even if they could, feeling it alien from their world, so don’t ask for a reduction when the legal establishment expects them to.Some say this measure is a violation of due process and cruel and unusual as it removes the use of human discretion from dealing with individual cases, not to mention removing human compassion. But non-custodial fathers do not have the money to fight a constitutional case."Notable casesThe Amendment has been a controversial law and has resulted in several notorious examples:Bobby Sherrill, a Lockheed employee in Kuwait from North Carolina, was captured by Iraqis and spent nearly five months as an Iraqi hostage. Sherrill was arrested the night after his release for not paying $1,425 in child support while he was a hostage.[9][10][11][12]Clarence Brandley, a Texas high school janitor, was wrongly convicted in 1980 of murder.[13] After spending many years in prison and on death row,[14] he was released in 1990 and he then sued the state of Texas for wrongful imprisonment in 1993.[15] The state then responded with a bill for nearly $50,000 in child support that had not been paid while in prison.[10][11] Dianna Thompson of The American Coalition of Fathers and Children told the Houston Chronicle that federal law makes it illegal for states to forgive child support payments regardless of circumstance.[16] Michael McCormick, of the American Coalition of Fathers and Children said, concerning child support payments, "I'm not aware of any state where it says a wrongly convicted individual is relieved of their obligation."[17] Despite paying child support every month since his release via wage garnishment, Brandley's child support total reached $73,000 in 2003, when a judge reduced his total to $22,000; however, this amount is still more than triple the $7,000 in back child support Brandley owed at the time of his arrest in 1980.[15] Recently, Brandley lost his job in the economic downturn in 2008; he has since lost his car and house as the child support bills and interest keep coming.[15]Taron James, a U.S. Navy veteran from California, was forced to continue to pay child support until 2006, even after the child was demonstrated by DNA test in 2001 to be not his; James paid $12,000 in such payments.[18][19] A California District Court of Appeal eventually set aside the paternity judgment against James in 2006, but the same court denied James' request to have his child support payments reimbursed.[20]Larry Souter was wrongly convicted of murder in 1992 and spent 13 years in prison[21] before being exonerated and released in 2005. Upon release, he was ordered to court to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt for failing to pay $38,000 in combined back child support, interest, and penalties.[21] Payments were not suspended for at least 3 years while he was in prison.[21] The interest and penalties accumulated while he was still in prison, and presumably unable to pay.Geoffrey Fisher was taken to court in 2001 due to being delinquent on child support payments, and had his driver's license suspended.[22][23] Fisher pushed for custody, and a state-ordered paternity test determined he was not the biological father.[22][23] In January 2002 a judge determined he no longer had to pay child support, but the attorney general's office claimed that Fisher still owed $11,450, approximately 3 year's worth of back support payments from the time of the child's birth until the time of the paternity test.[22][23] State officials have stated that this is because Fisher failed to file a court motion to relieve himself of financial responsibility to the child, and that Fisher is thus regarded as the legal father and responsible for child support.[23]What are they getting away with???Look at CaliforniaThe researchers conclude that nationwide "under current child support guidelines, the majority of custodial parents currently have higher standards of living than their matched noncustodial parents," and that in some situations this inequity is "dramatic."A recent study of California child support obligors conducted by the Urban Institute reflects the effects of these high guidelines, particularly as they impact low-income and minority men. According to the report, only 25% of California’ s $14.4 billion child support arrearage will be collected over the next decade, not because the debt is owed by high living divorced dads who won’ t pay, but because the support amounts demanded of noncustodial parents are often wildly unrealistic. The average arrears amount owed is $3,000 higher than the median annual earnings of employed child support debtors. Those in the poorest category have a child support debt amounting to their full net income for seven and a half years. Over a quarter of the arrears total represents interest due on principal.Braver and Stockburger conclude that the guidelines have become tilted against noncustodial parents in large part because they fail to consider the significant tax benefits accorded only to custodial parents. Whereas child support income is tax-free to the custodial parent, noncustodial parents must pay federal, state, and local income tax, as well as social security or FICA, on the money they pay in support. Also, in most cases only the custodial parent can claim the $3,050 per child tax exemption. Additional custodial parent tax advantages include: the Child Tax Credit (worth up to $1,000 per child); the Earned Income Credit (up to $4,204, with two children); deductions for school tuition and fees (up to $3,000 per return); the Child Care Credit (worth up to $1,050 per child); and a lower tax rate for "head of household" filing status.Conversely, the federal tax code treats divorced and unwed fathers–who are often paying 40 or 50 percent of their net income in child support–as if they are childless bachelors.Also, Braver and Stockburger point out that the current guidelines and the studies upon which they were based ignore the many child-related costs borne by noncustodial parents, including transportation, entertainment, and food during visitation, as well as money spent on clothes and out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses. And because California has been extremely permissive in allowing custodial parent move-aways, noncustodial parents often shoulder sizable burdens in travel expenses.If fact, the researchers probably understate the child support inequities noncustodial fathers face. Because the child support system is so inflexible, most fathers who lose their jobs or suffer wage cuts are not able to get downward modifications on their child support. These fathers end up paying support based on past wage levels which do not reflect their current, diminished earnings.In addition, while California is generally enthusiastic about enforcing child support orders, its courts are indifferent at best to enforcing noncustodial parents’ visitation rights–rights which studies show are frequently violated. Noncustodial parents must pay out of pocket for legal representation to enforce these rights. Few family issues are as heartbreaking as the common scenario of a noncustodial father paying so much of his income in child support that he cannot even afford to go to court to fight for his right to see his children.Many California fathers who fall in arrears on their child support suffer punitive measures, such as suspension or loss of driver’ s licenses, passports, and business licenses. Others struggle to stay out of jail or feel it’ s hopeless and disappear. Most of these men aren’t deadbeats, but instead fathers who worked hard to support their children both before and after their breakups with their children’ s mothers.Children need financial support, but they also need their parents’ love and emotional support. What rationale is there for California’ s child support guidelines if they serve to harm or drive away one of the two people who most love a child?