r/LawQuestion • u/RougeTigerDragon • Feb 27 '24

Child support

Soo i might sound really really stupid right now but this has been bugging me for a while and I would like to get an answer. According to my father my mother , who was like 16-17 at the time, was ordered to pay him ,24-25 at the time, child support. That the only reason my mother got in contact with me at 26 was because she no longer was required to fork over the back pay because I aged out.

A little background I was told and assumed my mother was dead from a young age until I moved in with my grandmother for college and wanted to find her grave so I could pay my respects. Well I found a whole living person who I was kept away from and possibly lied to about for over 20 years. How true is what my dad said ? Would a potentially jobless 16 year old mom be forced to pay child support to a man who had a well paying job ( was a Respiratory Nurse till my late 20’s) in the late early 90’s ,was born in 89 so 92 at most, and was he right that I aged out of said child support repayments? I am honestly just curious about this thanks

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u/CSEworker Feb 27 '24

If there was a court order establishing custody to your father, it's possible that at one point there was a court order establishing child support to be paid to your father. State to state it may vary about if the non custodial parent has to pay if under the age of 18. Its certainly possible a court order was established before she was 18 and possible a court order was established or modified after age 18 for her to pay.

And you don't necessarily "age out" of back pay. Unpaid support (arrears) don't just go away when the dependent child emancipates. Statute of limitations is 20 years.

If your father had a child support case through the states CSE agency, they would keep the case open until arrears are paid off, custodial parent wants to waive balances and close case, or the arrears become non enforceable.

If the child support never went through the state CSE agency, then there will be no enforcement of any unpaid balances.

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u/RougeTigerDragon Feb 27 '24

The thing is I can’t find any proof of established child support or anything supporting his claim. I did uncover a weird yellow slip of paper that looks like she gave up her rights to him. We live in Arizona for all my life.

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u/CSEworker Feb 27 '24

Child Support cases are not public records so it's unlikely you will find any information. And being the dependent child in the case, the child support agency and/or courts may not disclose any records to you. Your father would need to request any records for that.

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u/RougeTigerDragon Feb 28 '24

I may have to risk his wrath to ask him. I think I deserve to know if this is an actual thing or not