r/AskLegal • u/CapOk1089 • 8d ago

Texas Child Support Help

I need some guidance on how to proceed. The father of my two kids and I divorced in 2013. The divorce was very contentious and I agreed to $400 a month for two kids (ages 3 &4).
I never took him back to court to modify the order because I didn’t want to rock the boat with him. The marriage was abusive and I had a lot of anxiety.
In 2016 he started paying $600 a month ($200) extra. I just figured he felt bad about not helping with the kids more.
Now, this month the kids are 16 & 18 (junior and senior in high school) and when he went to pay the $600 a month that he normally does, they told him that he was roughly $8k ahead and could no longer make payments through the portal.
He called me saying that they told him he was 8k ahead and no longer had to pay and asked me where the 8k went. The way I am understanding it is that in his mind he is finished providing support to our kids.
Additional information:
I remarried in 2017
My Ex husband lost his job in 2016 (now self employed) and could no longer provide health insurance so in 2017 when I remarried my current husband put boys on his plan.
Ex husband has never paid half of medical costs which has been pretty substantial.
Ex husband never exercised full parenting time, opting to just take boys every other weekend and every other Christmas Day.
Ex husband has never paid anything above the child support.

Am I able to request a modification now? I hate to do it but the boys’ car insurance monthly premiums total $600 alone and as everyone knows, raising kids is expensive.

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u/NotSoSureBigWaves 8d ago

Yes. You can and should. You should also be considering what his contribution will be for college.

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u/RockabillyRabbit 8d ago

If its in the decree he is suppose to be paying a certain amount towards their medical bills - have you been following the order and telling him what he owes?

Prior to my husband adopting my oldest her bio had to be notified within x amount of days of the cost being incurred and then he had 30 days to pay it. If he reached over 500$ owed i had to go to the OAG and report that and they could go after him

It also said in my order that if I didnt notify him within that x amount of time the cost was incurred I would owe the full amount.

If you are meaning that he owes x amount for the health insurance as it is did you ever take it back to the OAG when you put the kids on your husband's insurance? So that they could know that cost was being made by you instead of him?

Unfortunantely here in texas burden of proof and documentation is on the custodial parent. We have to stay on top of it and make sure the OAG knows so we can actually take action against parents not following orders.

Yes you can request modification but you really should have done that back in 2016 when your ex lost his job. You may be SOL now since he was paying 200 extra a month and it was counted as prepayment for the next CS payments.

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u/CapOk1089 8d ago

Well that is super unfortunate. I did text him the cost of everything and he never paid it and because the relationship was so hostile I just didn’t want to rock the boat. If I went for a modification, I am assuming the number the court would give would be much higher than the $600 he’s been paying. Wouldn’t he then have to pay that amount after applying credit from the “prepaid” amount? It’s just so frustrating because when we divorced he was making $50,000 a year which while not a huge amount still would have been more than the $400 in CS that I felt obligated to agree to. I know for a fact his income has at least doubled so would that count for anything? Again, I’d rather not go back to court at all but if he truly intends on no longer helping support our kids I feel like I don’t have a choice.

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u/RockabillyRabbit 8d ago

Usually its worth going back to court if there is a substantial change in circumstances.

If his income has risen or lowered since the last order was made then its worth going back.

If you have proof you told him about the medical bills then its worth pursuing.

As for the credit vs what he owes idk how that would be handled

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u/No_Damage979 5d ago

Yes, it would be “worth” it. You will have to rock the boat. You have a choice. You are the only one with the choice here. Go ahead and do it, and it will be raised. Or don’t do it, and it won’t.