A Non-Custodial Fathers Rights Regarding Child Support

The situation of being a non-custodial parent in a divorce can be difficult both emotionally and financially, and if you find yourself in that situation, you may wonder what a non-custodial fathers rights regarding child support are. During a divorce, being separated from your former spouse, you may have also lost the joy of having your children live with you, and you may be restricted to certain days and periods of time when you are able to visit with them and spend time with them. In cases such as these, you are often required by the court to pay child support to your ex-spouse as well. As bad as the situation may seem, you do have rights regarding your child support as the non-custodial father. Many of these rights are not widely known, so learning them can help with your child support issues.

What are a Non-Custodial Fathers Rights Regarding Child Support

There are several answers to the question of what a non-custodial fathers rights regarding child support are. First, you have the right to have your child support agreement revisited, and in some cases lowered, depending on certain circumstances in your life. In order to investigate the possibility of having your child support lowered, you will need to prove that either you have had a significant decrease in income, your spouse has had an increase in income, your own costs of living have exceeded your ability to pay the agreed-upon child support as a result of illness or a job transfer, and/or that the costs of taking care of your children have gone up considerably.

Another right that you have, depending on your state, is the right to question the use of the child support money that you pay if you feel that the money is not being spent to support your children. For example, if the custodial parent drops your children off in tattered clothes driving her new Mercedes, you may be able to petition the court to prove that the child support funds are not being spent on the children as they are intended, and you may be able to seek a reduction or in some cases even custody of the children as a result.

One right that you do not have is the right to withhold child support to attempt to force your former spouse to obey the custody and visitation orders. There is no legal connection between the child support ordered by the court which must be paid, and your time spent with your children. You are not renting your children for two days a week. If you have problems with your spouse violating your custody agreement, you will want to contact a lawyer, the courts, or the police, depending who is charged with enforcing your agreement in your area. Knowing your rights is key in your role as a non-custodial father.

Getting Help

A qualified attorney can help you both to negotiate an original child support and custody agreement during the divorce, and can help you to make changes to an agreement after. An attorney can help you understand a non-custodial father's rights regarding child support and can help enforce those rights.

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