Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Child care support when child is not in child care anymore

Your question, because of the California Court Order,

cannot be adequately answered by a NM attorney. You

need to have an answer that is based on CA law.

Be that as it may, for general direction, in NM

you are supposed to follow a court order until you

have a new court order. I would imagine that CA

law is similar. Thus, until and unless you have

a new order replacing the order you have presently

you cannot or should not simply ignore the order.

The law is about process and participating in that

process. By participating in that process you

demonstrate to the judge and to others that you can

follow the rules. If you stop paying when you have

an order that says to pay then you demonstrate that

you cannot follow rules. Investigating this issue

as you are doing now is the first step in participating

in that process. Take the next step and obtain the

order that you need.

What I would tell you at this point is you have

to decide whether you want to follow the rules

and participate in the process . . . or not.

Good luck.

Re: Child care support when child is not in child care anymore

It depends on what the order actually says. It should say this: H will pay W 1/2 any daycare incurred in relation to her employment. The payment from H to W shall be made within 10 days after receipt of documentation by H.

Another way to do it is to have H pay his 1/2 directly to the daycare provider.

I also require that the daycare provider be licensed.

You could demand the documentation before you make a payment, but I can't guarantee that a refusal to pay absent documentation would not violate the order.

Re: Child care support when child is not in child care anymore

Probably you do not owe the child care amount. However, $144 sounds like a very low amount for child support, so if you stop paying the child care she may very well seek a modification of the child support order and you will end up with a higher child support order than what you are paying for child support and child care. My office does a free calculation of child support for San Diego County cases and you may call me at 1-800-6-4MYKIDS for a calculation. I recommend you not stir the pot until you have a good idea what the end result is. Good Luck, Pat McCrary