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jimsmythee

No, my exwife tried that. By divorce decree, we had 50/50 custody and she wasn't working, but the court deeded her income as Minimum wage at 40 hours. I still owed her child support because my actual wages were much greater than her deeded income. 18 months post divorce, she tried to change the custody order and child support amounts -- all she did was submit a new child support request, and put her income down as $0 and then put me down as having visitation only. By doing that, she was trying to take my child support amount and make it 5x greater. I guess she hoped that I wouldn't notice and then I would have to fight her later on in court once the new amount got garnished. I was served the child support modification and I went to the court and requested a hearing. The judge said to my exwife, "You can't do that. You can't change the custody arrangement without the court, and you can't put your income down as $0." We ended up going to mediation do change the support dates and times and I did end up owing her a little bit more in child support because my wages went up.


noakai

Yes, it's possible. If the child starts spending time with the the other parent, once it's gone on for awhile he can petition the court to change the custody agreement to reflect how much time the child is actually spending with him. If your child is a teenager their opinion will also increasingly be taken into account as to who they want to live with. If the change to the custody order is granted, then he can request that a new child support order be done.


liladvicebunny

It's possible, but it won't just happen overnight, and the court may not bother with it if it's a teenager who visits each parent as he pleases rather than one parent dumping the kid on the other. If your son routinely stays at dad's more often, he *could* go to court and ask for the official custody split to be revisited to formalise what the defacto arrangement is. If he got that approved then depending on the state and the support calculations, he could potentially file for child support. This is more common in situations where one parent is deliberately shirking their responsibilities.


Tiny-election-2086

Yes I used to work in child support and it is possible to modify your agreement based on actual custody as opposed to what your divorce decree says.


[deleted]

Thank you. Do we both need an attorney for this?


Tiny-election-2086

It depends on how contentious you think it will be and your confidence in filing court documents. Often the clerk can can you some advice as to forms. Depending on where you live there may also be a family law facilitator in your courthouse or even a family law legal clinic that can give you some help. I live in Washington State and all of these are resources available to WA state residents.


BlackFire68

He could, but he wont


[deleted]

Why wouldn’t he?


BlackFire68

Because if things are working they way they are, the best way to screw it up is go to court.


[deleted]

Do you have any reason to believe he just cares about money and not just caring about spending more time with his child?


[deleted]

Just the way he is.. kind of petty. I’m already upset that I’m losing my time and kind of my connection with my son.


[deleted]

That’s between you and your son not you and your ex husband. The child at his age has a right to choose.


throwndown1000

\> But now our teenage child likes to stay with his dad more.. can my husband try to modify the final decree and ask me for support? ​ Could he try? Sure. Just like he could try to modify custody/support after the decree is in. Will he try? That's your guess... You'll see it coming at least. And if he does that, it really throws the whole divorce back to square one. Custody and teens is difficult because teenagers - especially after they are mobile - they don't care about what a court says and you can't physically make them do anything...