If You Owe Back Child Support, Filing for Bankruptcy Is Not the Solution
Financial hardship has become to rule rather than the exception for many Americans, especially those with minor children. As you reduce your spending to deal with life in the gig economy, you might find yourself eliminating expenses you once considered a necessity. You bring a granola bar and a thermos of coffee to work, forgoing your cherished morning routine of stopping for coffee and a breakfast sandwich at a fast food restaurant. You cancel your gym membership and jog in the Florida heat. You cancel your subscriptions to the video streaming sites that carry your favorite shows and instead entertain yourself and your children with the videos available on YouTube. Speaking of your children, you spend all the time that they are not with you looking for additional gigs to supplement your income instead of engaging in any activity that would require you to spend money. As much as you value privacy, you move in with a roommate or with your parents. Despite your cost-cutting measures, one expense that does not go away is child support. You are still responsible for your child support debt even if you declare bankruptcy. The only way to reduce your child support obligations is to work with a South Florida child support lawyer.
Child Support Debt Follows You Even After Bankruptcy
According to Florida law, your right to have a relationship with your children until they reach adulthood is permanent, and so is your obligation to support them financially. Therefore, child support debts do not disappear when you declare bankruptcy. Likewise, people who declare bankruptcy are still required to pay other court-ordered financial obligations, such as fines for traffic tickets and criminal convictions, tax debts, and damages in personal injury cases. Bankruptcy is not the only extraordinary financial hardship through which child support obligations endure; being incarcerated does not get you out of your child support obligations, either. Child support obligations only go away when you stop being a parent to minor children, such as when you terminate your parental rights so someone else can adopt your children. When your children reach adulthood, the new obligations stop piling up, but you could still be paying back child support for years to come.
What to Do If Your Child Support Obligations Are Overwhelming
Requesting to modify your child support order is the only way to change your child support obligations. The court will modify your child support order if there has been a change to your financial circumstances or those of your ex-spouse, if you have changed your amount of parenting time by executing a new parenting plan, or if the child support order was unfair or misjudged your financial situation from the beginning. The best way to get a child support order that accurately reflects your financial means is by hiring a child support lawyer.
Let Us Help You Today
Declaring bankruptcy will not get you out of an unfair child support agreement, but working with a child support attorney will. Contact the Boca Raton child support lawyers at Schwartz | White about your child support case.
Resource:
floridabankruptcylaws.com/faq.html#3
https://www.schwartz-white.com/how-to-get-out-of-paying-child-support-without-breaking-any-rules/
