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Why you should take a stand against unpaid child support

On Behalf of | Mar 2, 2015 | Child Support |

For years, we have been told that children whose parents get divorced end up worse off than other kids. But new research has suggested that it’s actually financial security that impacts a child’s future the most.

NBC News reported that the non-partisan, non-profit group Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) analyzed data from the U.S. Census and determined that a family’s economic situation makes a greater impact on a child’s wellbeing than whether the child’s parents are married or divorced. 

So what does that mean for divorced or single parents? It means that it’s extremely important to make sure you get the support you need from the other parent so that you can raise your child in a financially secure home.

How to go about doing this depends on your situation. An experienced family law attorney can give you the specific advice you need, but here are some steps that may need to be taken:

If you are the custodial mother and were unmarried to the father when the child was born: To collect child support, you might first need to establish paternity, which means having a court determine that a specific man is the father of your child. From there, you can move forward with seeking child support.

If a child support order is in place but you are not being paid what you are owed: State law allows custodial parents to hold the other parent accountable when he or she is not following child support or spousal support orders. Both contempt and enforcement methods can be used to get the other parent to comply.

Our firm helps parents in both of these situations get the child and spousal support that they are owed in order to provide their children with a financially stable home.

As the CCF’s research shows, financial security is an extremely important factor in a child’s life, and both parents have an equal duty to provide for their children. 

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