In Indiana, a child is considered emancipated at the age of 19 by operation of law. Therefore, emancipation eliminates a parent’s duty to pay child support for the child, and in most cases, a parent’s other support obligations to their children terminates at the age of 19. However, there are key exceptions to this rule that are covered in this blog.
“By Operation of Statute.” The first thing to know about emancipation is that, in most cases, it occurs “by operation of statute.” To expand, a child’s emancipation is governed by statutory code. Pursuant to the relevant statutory code section, a ... Read More
Category: Child Support
18
Sep2020
11
Jun2020
Clearly, with COVID-19 and significant changes in the global supply chain currently impacting most businesses, everyone has had their job put at risk to some degree. This is the case even in great economic times. A simple restructuring of a company may cause a job loss. In this case, many parents paying child support simply do not know what to do. Willful failure to pay support is a contemptible action in court. This blog explores the best practices to follow when you lose your job and/or otherwise cannot pay child support.
The best way to start to address this problem is ... Read More
13
Apr2020
As a general rule, a party can file for divorce at any time so long as the marriage is irretrievably broken.1 After a divorce is final, a party may move to modify custody at any time but has to show a substantial change in circumstance to prevail. Equally, a party may file a request to modify child support at any time, but evidentiary requirements are different if the support has been modified within a year or after. That said, everyone knows the Coronavirus has crippled most all facets of our society and it impacts the court. This blog explores filing ... Read More
06
Apr2020
In Indiana, there have been significant layoffs and job terminations due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. For non-custodial parents who pay child support, suddenly their child support payments paid through a typical income withholding order does not occur. However, just because you lose your job does not lower or terminate your child support obligation. You have to act. The same is true if you are paying child support directly through the clerk. If you do nothing, your child support will continue to be owed and come to add up to a significant arrearage. This blog discusses options for parents ... Read More
01
Apr2020
On March 6, 2020, Governor Holcomb issued executive order 20-02 formally declaring a public health disaster in Indiana due to the novel Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) outbreak. Since at least that time, parents of divorce who have children or couples who had children out of wedlock began wondering how this impacted physical custody and parenting time. While some parents carried on as normal with their parenting time exchanges, others took the position that the children would remain with them and not be out being exchanged for the duration of the disaster. Judges and lawyers conducted frantic group calls to determine how to ... Read More
15
Nov2019
This blog is written for divorced parents or parents of children in a paternity action that are about to turn 19 years of age. Although minor children are considered to be adults when they turn 18 years of age, there are still parental financial obligations for children of divorce or paternity cases. In the state of Indiana that continues until 19 years of age and possibly beyond. The statutes in Indiana require that a parent must file before the child turns 19 years of age to preserve the financial obligation of child support or college expenses, beyond the age of ... Read More
15
May2019
It’s important for the attorneys at Ciyou & Dixon, P.C., as family law practitioners, to stay updated on Indiana laws to best serve our clients. Part of our ongoing effort to provide effective and efficient legal counsel to meet our clients’ goals includes learning about legislation that impacts the types of cases in which we are often involved. In this blog post, we discuss several changes that will become effective in 2019 that may impact issues in family law (divorce, paternity, child support modification, guardianship, adoption, etc.) that an individual may find themselves facing if you are involved in one ... Read More
13
Sep2018
Indiana trial court judges and attorneys encourage the parties to reach agreements in divorce and paternity cases. There is even a specific statute in the Divorce Act expressly encouraging custody agreements.1 However, Indiana trial court judges have a legal duty to watch over children of the marriage and ensure their best interests are met. For this reason, there are a few types of agreements the parties cannot settle for or even request the trial court to order in a contested trial. This blog addresses these four types of child-related terms the parties cannot agree to and why that is the ... Read More
13
Mar2018
Divorce is often the best of times and the worst of times - all at the same time. The decision to move on in life from a worn-out relationship is hard-to-impossible to make, particularly where there are children involved. The “unknowns” and “uncertainty” are what hold many people back. On the other hand, life is short and taking steps to move to a new future when a marriage cannot be repaired is at the same time, liberating to exciting for many litigants. This blog post provides three practical, common-sense tips most litigants never think of in this context, but which ... Read More
28
Dec2017
In divorce and paternity cases, there are numerous state and federal laws requiring parents to pay child support for their children, and about as many laws for enforcement of court- order support obligations. In fact, failure to pay child support may cause legal penalties against you, ranging from losing a professional license to being found in contempt of court and ordered to jail. This blog covers four simple ways to avoid a child support arrearage and its legal consequences.
First, some parents pay child support directly to the other parent. This is always a mistake. Child support not paid through the ... Read More