How Can a Parent Enforce Child Support or Child Custody Orders in Murfreesboro?

If your ex-spouse is not following the court-ordered parenting plan or not paying child support on time, you can petition the court to enforce the parenting plan or child support order.

Raising children is a challenge, even under ideal circumstances. Parenting is an even bigger source of conflict for many couples than money is, and for couples who cite finances as their biggest source of disagreement, children’s expenses tend to be the most fraught subject. When you get divorced, you have written documents to follow regarding where the children must be on which days, and which parent must contribute how much money toward their expenses. These are the parenting plan and child support order. In the best cases, the mere existence of these documents is sufficient to keep the peace. Some parents whose relationship is so strained that they cannot be in the same room together practice parallel parenting, simply following the parenting plan and using apps like Our Family Wizard or AppClose to communicate about unforeseen delays. Some exes are so flaky that court orders have little effect on them, though. A Murfreesboro family law attorney can help you if your ex-spouse is not paying child support or not exercising their court-ordered parenting time.

Parenting Plans are a Court Order, Not a Suggestion

You may have kept the peace in your marriage for as long as you did by being easygoing about your spouse’s constant changes of plans, but parenting plans are serious business. The court uses the number of overnights each parent spends with the children as one of the factors in calculating child support. Therefore, if your ex does not follow the parenting plan, there are financial consequences. For example, say that the parenting plan states that the children are with your ex from Sunday night until Friday afternoon every week, so that in February, she has 20 overnights during the month, but she decides to go to a destination wedding for one of those weeks, reducing her number of overnights to 16. This leaves you paying child support for parenting time that your ex did not exercise. Your ex has the right to attend a destination wedding, but it is her responsibility to take the children to her parents’ house or hire a babysitter instead of leaving you holding the bag.

If your ex consistently flakes on his parenting time, you can go to court to enforce the parenting plan. The court might hold your ex in contempt, or it might even modify the parenting plan to give you more parenting time so that your parenting plan and child support order reflect your current reality.

Legal Consequences of Not Paying Court-Ordered Child Support

The court can hold your ex in contempt if he/she does not pay court-ordered child support.  This can result in financial penalties and, in extraordinary cases, jail time.

Contact a Murfreesboro Co-Parenting and Child Support Lawyer

A family law attorney can help you if your ex-spouse is not abiding by your parenting plan. Contact David L. Scott in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, or call (615)896-7656 to set up a consultation.