Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland
Ending of an exparte and Family maintenance?
I had an exparte against my wife and she had one against me. In the exparte there was visitation and temporary custody of the children and the house we were renting. There was also issued a family maintenance. Now it has been a year and the exparte is over. Am I still obligated to pay the family maintenance or can I begin to pay what MD states as Child Support until I can afford to file for divorce. I got this number from my attorney before the exparte was issued and it is on an income $80 higher per weel than I am making now. So can I go to paying Support so I can afford an attorney again to file for my divorce?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Ending of an exparte and Family maintenance?
If the standard civil protection order form was employed in your case, all of the obligations, including the requirement to pay emergency family maintenance (child support), ended as of the expiration date stated in the order, unless otherwise stated. Therefore, you are legally not obligated to pay support at this time.
Your wife could file a family court action for custody and child support or include that in a divorce action. Or you could file a divorce action, in which case she would probably file for custody and support.
The best course of action is to try and reach an agreement with her as to a fair amount of support and other aspects of a divorce (e.g., property settlement), after which either of you can proceed with an uncontested divorce. I strongly urge you to get a qualified family lawyer to represent you.
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