HOW DO I COLLECT BACK SUPPORT FOR MY SUPPORT?

QUESTION: I'm about to turn 18 and my child support is about to stop. My mom has had a case open for my biological dad since I was born but, they barley found him in 2010 to order the payments. How do I get all the back pay he owes me since I was born? ___________ MY RESPONSE: You don't. Support payments go to the other supporting parent, i.e., your mother, for the cost to support you during your minority. Also, unless there was a support order issued by a court many years ago, there will not be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for your mother to collect. The Court won't order child support ordered retroactive to a date before the child support order was sought, which you indicated was in 2010.

WHAT DO I DO IF MY HUSBAND HIDES FROM THE SHERIFF'S SERVICE ATTEMPTS?

QUESTION: I filed for divorce on May 1, 2012 and I gave the documents to the sheriff to serve my husband but every time they try, my husband hides and the sheriff cannot serve him. What should I do? My husband thinks that if he keeps hiding, the petition will be dismissed. I do not want my petition to be dismissed, so, what else can I do? I have 4 minor daughters and there is no chance that we can fix our marriage.

MY RESPONSE: Hire a private process server to serve your husband.

IS MY FIANCE' DIVORCED?

QUESTION: My Fiance' filed for a divorce from his wife while he was in jail. He mailed the papers to me and I mailed them to the sheriff's office in her county so they could serve her with them. If she wasn't home and didn't sign- is their marriage still legal? Or did the divorce go through because she did not contesr it?

MY RESPONSE: They aren't divorced, if those are all the facts. Merely filing and serving divorce papers doesn't automatically result in a divorce. There are other documents which need to be exchanged, and still other documents which need to be filed, before the Court will issue a Judgment dissolving the parties' marriage. It sounds like his wife wasn't even served with the divorce case, although the party who is served does not need to sign anything to be served. Your fiance' would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent him in proceedings to divorce his wife.

HOW CAN I GET CHILD SUPPORT FROM SOMEONE WHO HIDES HIS INCOME?

QUESTION: I want my child to receive financial support, however I am hesitant to go about doing so because the father is self-employed and has no proof of income. He does not keep money in the bank for his personal reasons. Would this even be worth bringing to the court? Can he not easily lie about assets and income, anyway?

MY RESPONSE: Contact your local public Child Support Agency (in Los Angeles, that would be the Child Support Services Dept.) and request that they obtain Child Support from the father. That way, you don't incur attorney's fees that you would incur if you hired a private Family Law Attorney to file and prosecute a Paternity case to seek Child Support from the father.

CAN I SUE MY EX HUSBAND FOR BACK SUPPORT?

QUESTION: Back in 1993 I had a court order for my ex husband to pay child support until my son turned 18. I only received a handfull of payments over the years. Although my son is 20 now, is it possible to take him back to court and sue him for the back support I never received ?

MY RESPONSE: Most likely. There used to be a statute of limitations for collection of Child Support Arrearages. That statute of limitations was subsequently eliminated by the legislature. However, it is unlikely that the elimination is retroactively applicable. For all amounts which were due after the effective date of the legislature's elimination of the statute of limitations on Child Support Arrearages which your ex-husband failed to pay, he owes you those amounts plus 10% per annum interest until those amounts are fully paid.

CAN A PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT WORK IN MY FAVOR?

QUESTION: If I want the marriage to work but she doesn't and just wants to take 50% of everything or more including alimony, will a prenuptial agreement work in my favor and up to what percentage? If before she married me she signed that if she divorced me she would not take anything, not even alimony, will that work?

MY RESPONSE: If you had a well-drafted Prenuptial Agreement, prepared, reviewed and signed in accordance with Californa's Prenuptial Agreement statutes, where both parties reviewed it with his and her respective attorney at least a month, if not more, prior to the wedding, it may be upheld by the Divorce Court. But if it was an informal document prepared shortly before the wedding without the benefit of consultation with independent counsel and without the required Disclosures and appropriate waivers, it is unlikely that the Court would uphold the agreement. The Prenuptial Agreement can provide whatever the parties agree that it will provide, in terms of property ownership, Spousal Support, etc. However, in a divorce, the Court could disallow unconscionable terms in a Prenuptial Agreement or even an entire unconscionable Prenuptial Agreement.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON'T HAVE THE CURRENT ADDRESS TO SERVE SOMEBODY?

QUESTION: I need to serve someone and don't have a current address for them. Do I go to the last known address and serve whoever is there or do I not try to serve the papers at all?

MY RESPONSE: You need to serve the person who is to be served. I assume that you are referring to a spouse to be served in a divorce case. If you can't locate your spouse for purposes of service, you would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney, who would have the resources available to have a due diligence search performed in an effort to locate your spouse, and if unable to locate your spouse, who would be able to apply for an obtain an Order for Publication of Summons, to enable your spouse to be served by Publication.