While some states slipped in the amount of child support money collected in 2009, Louisiana saw an increase that year and in 2010.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that the struggling economy translated into the first dip in collections in 2009 since 1975. Nationwide figures for 2010 and 2011 were not part of the report.
When parents in Louisiana who don't have custody of their children fall behind on their child support payments, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services isn't willing to forgive the debt.
In December 2011, the agency's collection team brought in more than $74,000 from non-paying parents. In addition, state officials arrested 126 people for non-payment. Combined, those people owed $1.1 million at the time of their arrests.
Down the Gulf Coast from Louisiana, a long-running child custody saga continues to play out in the court system, yet not in family court.
A man who had been suspected of hiring a handyman to kill his ex-wife was not indicted by a grand jury for the allegations. Now, the man's attorney says the accusation was just a ploy by the ex-wife to get the upper hand in their custody case. The ex-husband, 42, had been arrested in June.
In a ruling that could affect child custody cases in Louisiana and elsewhere, a judge in another state has ruled a 10-year-old boy must trade in his iPhone for a low-tech cellphone because the iPhone was used as an instrument to spy on his father. The judge said the boy used his phone to take photos and record the activities of his father, and then forward them via the phone to his mother.
The boy lives with his father and has been the subject of a long-running and bitter custody dispute between the parents. The child allegedly told others he would kill himself if forced to stay with his father, who has had custody since 2007.
Grandparents in Louisiana who take guardianship of their minor grandchildren face the possibility they will be forced to leave their homes. This is what is happening in some seniors-only communities nationwide.
Communities with residences marketed to seniors only are starting to see the realities of modern-day life. As more families lose their homes or jobs and turn to grandparents for housing, that often means a child will be moving in. And as more grandparents take custody of their grandchildren when the birth parents can't raise them, more children are living in seniors only communities.
As many Louisiana military families know, maintaining a marriage while one spouse is deployed overseas can be difficult. While divorces among all military members rose in 2011, members of the U.S. Air Force divorced at the highest rate.
In statistics released in December, the Department of Defense stated that 3.9 of every 100 Air Force marriages ended in a divorce in 2011. In total, there were 30,000 divorces in all branches, but 7,534 of those came from Air Force personnel.
In Louisiana, 11 percent of children live in families run by grandparents, leading to a number of grandparents in the state seeking legal custody of their children's kids. That's the third-highest rate in the United States. Nationally, 7 percent of children are raised by grandparents, according by a state organization that advocates for grandparents.
The trend has left Louisiana grandparents struggling to learn not only their rights but also how to parent in the 21st century, a world vastly different than the one in which they raised their own children. Now, they are tapping into networks of grandparents just like them, learning about financial assistance to raise little ones they never planned on raising and taking classes to find out about parenting in a changed world.
Divorced spouses and their children often do not receive their court ordered payments, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bureau statistics show that child support is routinely paid in the mandated amount less than 50 percent the time. About 33 percent of ex-spouses receive a lesser amount and about 25 percent get no money at all.
Parents who do not receive timely child support payments have recourse when they can prove their case to their state's Office of Child Support Enforcement. The agency has a variety of ways to recoup the funds such as taking money from the paycheck of the party owing the money. The agency can also attach a lien to real property or a vehicle or confiscate funds owed to the payor by the government such as tax returns, to pay the former spouse.
Continue reading Keep good records when due Louisiana child support or alimony
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A mistrial has been declared in a criminal case in Louisiana that the defendant says was rooted in matters concerning child custody and child support. If the man's argument is true, the case is another example of the effect that divorce, if not handled smoothly, can have on other aspects of people's lives.
The man, who was on trial in St. Tammany Parish for allegedly fondling his 8-year-old twin daughters, told the court that the girls and their brother lied at their mother's request. The mother, the defendant said, asked her children to tell the story in order to gain both child custody and child support.
Continue reading Defendant claims child custody spurred molestation charge
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Divorce courts in Louisiana and elsewhere are rarely filled with agreeable spouses. Some family law attorneys say the best option for spouses on the road to divorce may be to never enter a courtroom. For couples seeking as much sanity as possible through divorce, structured negotiations may be the answer.
Divorce is not easy, even for the spouse who seeks one. Sometimes a courtroom showdown over marital issues or child custody makes the process even harder. Many legal experts now feel that divorces resolved outside of court are the best option, unless matters between spouses cannot be resolved any other way.
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