Hello Bob.

04 Sep 10 16:44, you wrote to me:

 BA> Replying to a message of Jeff Smith to Allen Prunty:

 JS>>     In my case I requested a DNA test to confirm as there was
 JS>> room for some doubt. The mother filed for support almost
 JS>> immediately but the order for support was dependent on the
 JS>> results of the DNA test.

 JS>>     In the case that you refer to it amazes me that the military
 JS>> can take money from someone's pay when paternity is in dispute
 JS>> and hasn't been proven.

 BA> It would seem to me that in the absence of some judgment from a court
 BA> that the money could not be withheld.  However, in this day and age it
 BA> seems that a letter from any bureaucrook can suffice.

 BA> It also seems to me that there could be no arrears for the time period
 BA> before a court ordered that the child support be paid.  Since there
 BA> was no duty to pay prior to the court order, there should be no
 BA> arrears to assess.  IMO it really doesn't matter whether AFDC was
 BA> involved or not.

     I know someone where a request for support was filed by the mother
about three years after the childs birth. When the order for support
was actually issued by the courts. The father was immediately in arrears
for the previous three years. While I think that it is wrong for the
courts to take it upon themselves to assess a debt when there was no
oredr active at the date and time. I do think that there is still a
responsibility. I am not a fan of the courts or the government forcing
their way into people's lives. If people work out an araingement that
works for them. Why does the goverment (State/Federal) need to tell
people that they need to do something and in a certain way? It isn't
uncommon for the county to require mothers to file for child support
regardless of what agreement the parents may have already worked out.

 BA> I have an acquaintance who is still paying off arrears assessed by the
 BA> Nebraska state agency that handles such matters, and he will most
 BA> likely be paying it for the rest of his life and they'll probably take
 BA> whatever estate he may have then. The child involved is now over 30
 BA> years of age.  I suspect that Nebraska is charging interest rates on
 BA> the debt at a rate that would make the worst of the credit card
 BA> companies blush.

     The state's or county's way of trying to make things better for
us. 


 BA> --- FleetStreet 1.19+

Jeff

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20070503