Action Opportunity: Petition to End Shameless Discrimination Against Fathers and Disabled Vets

mjsansai · 2014-04-12T09:32:29+00:00

I am a disabled veteran of the Vietnam war after serving my country honorably and with a disability pension I attended university under the GI Bill, received my degree and went overseas to work because I didn't want to live in a country that didn't honor it's veterans who sacrificed their lives for what some whinny millennial child who is entitled to her new car on her 16th birthday. I left because there is no integrity nor honor left in the court system. I have lived in Thailand for 37 years and have only visited for funerals of brothers and family. My advise to all who can leave, if you can't leave fight for your rights and never give up.

speedisavirus · 2014-04-13T00:52:02+00:00

Wow, didn't expect this to launch a petition, but alright.

So anyway, to answer some of the comments here...yes, obviously I don't expect my child support payment to change automatically with my change in income. I have not yet contacted them because despite knowing that I'm getting my clearing papers next week, I do not yet have an exact date on when I start terminal leave, therefore not knowing what day my terminal leave will end, and when my income will officially change.

My question was mostly asking for advice on how to deal with the road blocks and obstacles I'm undoubtedly going to face when I DO request a change. So if you interpreted my comment as expecting the court to have psychic powers...not only do you lack some reading comprehension skills, but you're quick to jump to conclusions...so if you are actually a lawyer, you're probably a really shitty one...but I digress.

Maybe it will help to explain why I ASSUME this is going to be a huge nightmare for me, and by that I'll have to explain the nonsensical story on how my child support payments and custody were settled in the first place.

My daughter was born in Oct 2010, to my girlfriend who is now an ex-girlfriend. I was in Afghanistan at the time, and came home(to Texas, where all of this happened) in late January. During Oct-Jan she had already broken up with me, but I still helped pay for hospital bills, I ordered her a bunch of baby stuff off amazon, and sent her over $1,000 as an informal form of child support.

When I returned to the states I was given a temporary barracks room until I could find my own place. It was when I moved into my new place that my roommate received a packet from the constable containing all the information about being sued for child support...but not only that...the decisions were already made because I was considered a no-show. The reason I was a no-show was because I never received notice...the date the notice was supposedly sent out was when I was still in the temporary barracks without a mailbox or physical address.

So they went ahead and proceeded without me, basing my child support payment on an income that was higher than it actually was. I was also ordered to BACK PAY her from the date my daughter was born, despite the fact that I more than held up my end financially towards our daughter during that time. I was also only given visitation rights on the weekend.

Naturally, I wanted to appeal this or fight it...and I ran in to nothing but dead ends and rudeness from the child support division. I was told it was too late for me to appeal it, the judge had already signed it. On a goose chase I went...I was put in touch with some agency called Heoes for Hire I believe, and went all the way to the attorney general. When the attorney general gave me all the necessary information and paperwork, when I tried to turn it in I got the same "You're too late, the judge just signed off on it last week" response. I got that same response within around 2 months of each other. So which is it? Did the judge just give it the final signature then, or when I first inquired about it. Was the second response also a lie? I was also told that the fact that I had proof of the money I was sending her didn't matter, I had to back pay her anyway. Basically no matter how high I went up the chain, it didn't matter because the child support division completely shut me down the entire way. I talked to JAG, legal, civilian attorneys...the general advice I got was that if I spent a ton of money on hiring a lawyer about this, the correction in the child support payment I was ordered to give according to my income would be too insignificant for it to even be worth it, and that there probably wasn't any way I was going to get custody of my daughter "because that's just typically not how it goes in Texas". In the long run it came down to "Yeah, you got screwed...but there's nothing you can really do about it.

So, in summary...I was never given notice to appear in court, the child support payment was based off of false numbers, the custody arrangements were arranged without me, and no matter how I tried there was nothing I could really do about it, and the child support office gave me nothing but attitude, condescension, and rudeness the entire way.

My comment asking for advice was based on the assumption that I will run into this same sort of nightmare based on the past experiences I've had. This is especially important now because while $577/mo is kind of a lot of money(it's more than my dad ever paid a month, and he made a lot more money than I do), it's been affordable within the budget of my regular Army salary. When I get out of the Army, I'll be living on $1,200 a month until my VA kicks in and it will be more like $1,500. I will not be able to afford that same payment based on that kind of income. Maybe that will clear things up. At any rate, if this petition actually gains any footing obviously this is about more than me. I know a lot of people that have went through similar experiences. Hopefully some other veterans can share some of their stories as well.

DougDante · 2014-04-12T09:26:16+00:00

Also submitted to:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

https://tips.fbi.gov/

[email protected] contact found at: http://thetexascrimestoppers.org/anything_slides/tips/

BunPuncherExtreme · 2014-04-12T22:26:20+00:00

Anecdotal, but out of the 15 divorced veterans I know, 14 of them, all men, have custody of their kids. Of the 14 that have custody, 10 of them had to go to court over it multiple times. The one that doesn't have custody also went to court, but didn't fare as well as the others. He pays about $400 a month, which is right around what he gets from the VA for his disability.

What I've seen for my active duty buddies is the opposite, which makes sense because of all the deploying they do.

The best thing /u/guitarmy21b can do is to file for a reduction in child support effective upon his discharge from active duty. They won't reduce it before hand while he has a higher guaranteed income, but there are policies in place that can support an appropriate reduction due to loss of income. This does not require a lawyer, but he may want to consult one to ensure he has all the appropriate documentation before heading in. There will also likely be a filing fee which varies by location and local law.

DougDante · 2014-04-12T20:28:52+00:00

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Please recall that our tax dollars are used by these agencies and they are obligated under federal law not to conspire against and deny parents their civil and statutory rights to child support modifications without a lawyer. (Also, lawyers are not readily available for the impoverished).

(2) Expedited administrative and judicial procedures (including the procedures specified in subsection (c) of this section) for establishing paternity and for establishing, modifying, and enforcing support obligations.

42 U.S. Code § 666 - Requirement of statutorily prescribed procedures to improve effectiveness of child support enforcement

Please also see the FAQ.

Karissa36 · 2014-04-12T15:11:16+00:00

One thing for sure is my current child support payment ($522) will break me on my new income and at the very least it needs to be adjusted. Is there a way a best way to get this done, and quickly?

Well yeah, like every other American citizen, you are entitled to use this amazing thing we have called the court system. Now unfortunately, we do not yet have that court system refined to the point where judges telepathically know that your income has been reduced, and just automatically reduce your child support. So you can file a really stupid petition complaining about this injustice to administration of the federal government, which doesn't even adjudicate child support payments, complaining that your State's judges do not have psychic power. OR you can just file a motion to reduce your child support payments, so the judge knows about your new financial circumstances, like every other rational American citizen would do.

Title	Action Opportunity: Petition to End Shameless Discrimination Against Fathers and Disabled Vets
Author	DougDante
Upvotes	47
Comments	23
Date	April 12, 2014 8:52 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/22ue3o/action_opportunity_petition_to_end_shameless/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/action-opportunity-petition-to-end-shameless.1001752 https://theredarchive.com/post/1001752