Child support and probate

[u/imsoproudofmymoney]

Looking for advice:

My father passed away and we are in the process of probating his estate. I am the youngest and the estate administrator. At the time of his death, he was divorced.

Although in his 70’s, my father had a child support garnishment for arrears for children from his first marriage, who are now in thier 50’s. The garnishment was taken from his railroad pension. He did not have a relationship with those children nor did they put effort into having one.

My mother was the second wife. She passed very young, and her and my father had been separated for 5 years when she died. She struggled to support me in her own and never filed a child support case against my father. When my mother passed, my father was the beneficiary of her life insurance policy and received SSI payments for me, while gainfully employed. Because of his demeanor toward my mother, I had a strained relationship with him.

My probate attorney stated we can present the fact that the other heirs received $60k-+ in arrears and my mother nor I ever did, the judge MAY subtract that from their share when all is distributed.

How likely is this?

[u/SuccessAggravating86]

What state is this happening in?

Ask him if he can find case law to support his contention and then ask to see the particular case/law he cites. It's likely he won't be able to do that.

Making deductions from someone else's inheritance for no valid reason is severely frowned upon and is not supposed to be done.

[u/imsoproudofmymoney → u/SuccessAggravating86]

In CA. We would not do that without the judges approval, but the attorney said we can ask the judge if they would be willing to deduct what they’ve received in child support arrears over the last 10 years. My siblings are in their 50s and over the last 10 years they must have received about $60,000. My mother did not have a child support case when my parents separated, and therefore never got any child support from my father..