Well, if you can prove that, then you and your your kids shouldn't have any money problems for a long time.
I suppose you haven't heard of the term "Soveriegn Immunity" huh? It's a little principal that exempts the government from decisions made in good faith by judges, legislators and many others. It allows them to do their jobs without worry of losing everything and in general is a good principle. Our legal system as well as our whole system of government would have a hard time functioning without it. Mistakes happen. In my case it happened to be a bad one.
What about when Attorney General John Cornyn garnished my wages for non-payment, and again I was ahead? I ended up losing $6K on that deal, and no, I didn't get the money back from the ex. She spent it, and NO I couldn't withhold future payments of child support because of an erroneous garnishment. Do you think that the AG went after the ex for her fruadulent claim to get a welfare check? What about the felonious statement made to obtain welfare (to get a welfare check for your kids, you have to state that your ex is not paying CS)? My experience is that women are generally exempt from the teeth of the family court. At least in the 245th Judicial District Court in Harris County, TX.
Again- a case of thinking you know the situation when you really don't. Showing up to court without an attorney in my opinion and in my experience is idiocy to an extreme. Perhaps people who show up to court without an attorney should lose their rights to keep and bear arms because they've shown themselves to be mentally incompetent or at least highly unaware of the consequences of their actions. You don't save money by acting as your own attorney---EVER.
Besides, you don't just fill out a paper in Texas. You go through the whole process as any modification to a divorce decree opens the whole thing up again just like going through the divorce all over. In order to open the case, you just about have to have an attorney unless you are good at writing legal documents. If you're that good, you wouldn't be piddling with a $380.00 CS reduction, you'd be filing motions!
If you want to deal in reality, let's deal. If you want to deal in what you think reality is, then I'm not playing. In principle, you should support your kids. What happens when your kid is adjudicated an adult for a heinous crime and goes to prison? Think your CS stops automatically? Maybe in principle, but I know of two people who were garnished. One had a son in prison for life (so he stopped paying) and another had a kid who DIED.
Oh- and you think that's funny- wait until you read this: For two years straight, I did not see my children. I made every trip which amounted to driving 150 miles one-way, every other weekend and each time, was denied. In most cases, the kids were someplace else. Again- I had to get an attorney. Contempt of court was filed, and she
was held in contempt. Unfortunately for me, the judge didn't fine her because "it would only come out of the mouth's of the kids." Think he threw her in jail? Nope- "who would take care of the kids?" Absolutely nothing happened to her except a verbal scourging about how important fathers are to the development of their daughters. She cried during it too. As we walked out and she looked over at me, she grinned- obviously impressed at how she played the judge so well. Two years of paying child support and never seeing your kids. TWO YEARS! Think you can stop your end of the bargain because the ex stops her's? Keep thinking! I'll never get those years back. In fact, if you factor every hour I've seen them, and every dollar I've paid to their upkeep, it comes out to about $7500.00 per hour. Great bargain huh?
You see, Child Support isn't linked to visitation rights in Texas nor anywhere else that I am aware of. Even if she runs off with them and never lets you see them, you must keep paying. You don't get your money back and you'll never get the time back that you lost. When your kids need psychiatric treatment for the way that they were treated by their mother guess who'll have to pay the bills?
And don't try to pull the "fight for custody" thing. Did that. Sold everything, even guns to afford it and went into debt so deep that I had to file bankruptcy. Think a father has a chance in hell of getting custody in most courts in Texas or the US for that matter? What if the mother is committed to a psychiatric hospital for suicide attempts? NOT A CHANCE! Everybody knows that "the calves don't follow the bulls around the pasture" as one Houston Judge so eloquently put it as he denied a man with a worse situation custody from an even worse ex.
If life was cut and dried like you imagine it to be, we wouldn't need those things called courtrooms and judges (and lord we need some good judges)!
Rights are rights and the RKBA's is pretty high on my list. The only people in my book who lose it are those who are CURRENTLY incarcerated.
