Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

if I had been ordered to pay daycare expenses for my 3yo child in effect doubling my support order from 45 to 95 dollars and child is now 11 and I had been charged that amount for six yrs or longer but wasn't in daycare because of school etc., can all that money be allotted to past or future support?


Asked on 9/12/13, 11:09 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Thomas Daley KoonsFuller PC

This depends on how your child support order reads and how it interacts with Sections 154.012 and 154.014 of the Texas Family Code. If you voluntarily paid more than what you should have and didn't say anything about, the case law says that you just essentially gave gifts to your children in the amount of the excess child support. If at the time you paid the excess you said that you were doing it as a prepayment of future support, then you may be entitled to credit.

The main thing you have going against you is that if the child support order did NOT contain provisional language ("eg, Dad is ordered to pay for child care FOR AS LONG AS THE KIDS ARE IN DAYCARE") then you are probably out of luck.

You should take your orders to a family law attorney and let him or her read them and give you a better answer after having reviewed all the facts in your case.

Good luck!!

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Answered on 9/26/13, 10:44 am


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