Monday, March 21, 2011

Q & A: Is there a way to document where my fiance's ex-wife's child support is going? It seems to be going towards her frivolous lifestyle!

Q. My fiancé’s ex-wife continually complains about not having enough money to buy necessary things for their children, but yet she is constantly talking about her new clothes, just purchased a new car, and comes over with perfectly manicured nails.  It’s obvious that the child support my fiancé is paying to her to help take care of their two children is not going where it needs to go.  Can we take her to court to find out how exactly she’s using the child support?  Can we make her document where the money is going?

A.  This is a tough question. You would think that you can take the mother to court to ask for an accounting of how her money has been spent; however, the courts—mainly due to laziness—typically do not want to get into “how” the money is spent.  Unless you can demonstrate a really severe situation in which the kids are really suffering (such as starving, malnutrition, etcetera), you’re going to be hard-pressed to make her cough up an accounting of her expenditures.   I know that this burns you, but these are just the facts, Ma’am!

1 comment:

  1. I couldn't believe it when my partner's ex-wife asked if my son could spend the night while she went out dancing in light of the fact that she has been un and/or under-employed for 3 years since the divorce. Is there any legal recourse in this situation? He pays her enough money to live on without working and she is living a a party lifestyle though she says she intends to work. Doesn't seem right to me. But what can be done about it?

    ReplyDelete