As a father, you hope to play a pivotal role in your children’s lives. However, because of divorce and child custody terms, you may feel that you do not get the opportunity to be in your children’s lives as much as you would like. You may feel some sense of pride in providing child support payments as this action allows you to ensure that your children’s needs are met.
Though you may want to continue making your payments as the terms dictate, you may find yourself facing financial hardships that make your arrangements difficult to keep up with. As a result, you may feel that you have failed your children, and you may also fear facing legal repercussions for missing payments. When faced with such a scenario, you may wish to consider petitioning for support modifications.
Take action
In order to address your concerns, you may wish to take action as soon as possible. The longer you wait to handle your issues, the farther you may fall behind on your payments. You should remember that you must make up any missed payments. Therefore, when you learn that your circumstances have changed or you know that they will soon change, you may wish to begin the process for support modifications.
Talk with the other parent
You may want to begin trying to handle the situation by speaking with the other parent involved. If you both remained on amicable terms after the divorce, you may have the ability to come to support changes together and simply have the court approve the change. This approach could save much time and effort and quickly resolve the issue.
Petition the court
If you and the other parent cannot come to terms on your own, you may then need to petition the court to request changes to your current support agreement. You will need to give reason for your request and provide evidence that your circumstances have changed in the manner you have expressed. Evidence may include documents relating to unemployment, income changes, medical issues or other changes that have impacted your financial affairs.
Continue making payments
Though it may prove challenging, you may wish to continue making your payments at their current amount as best as possible. Because your current order remains in effect, any missed payments or underpayments may negatively impact you later on. In order to fully understand how to go about seeking modifications and how missed payments could affect you, you may wish to gain reliable information from local Louisiana legal resources.