“Hello my name is Daisha and Ive been in a relationship with a man for 5yrs and we have a 2yr old daughter he has 2 other kids from a privious relationship that he loves to death and I also love. Now the thing is the kids live 3 hours away from us but we go see them every weekend the kids lived with us for 10 months their mother let them come 2 days after my baby was born and she never once came to visit we enrolled them in school and things were going good but 10 months later my fiance recived court papers she wanted the kids back long story short she got the kids back they went from having their own bedrooms to living in a 1 bedroom with their mother that crushed my fiance. He has been paying child support the whole 5yrs i forgot that part even the 10 months they lived with us. Things seem to be getting better he accteped that the kids went back to their mother and we’ve been going down every weekend now all of a sudden she’s trying to push him out of their lives telling the kids that he doesent love them he only loves my baby and he has a new family and does not need them because he has me and my baby theres alot more that was said but its just to much my fiance is getting to the point where he doesent know what to do any more and he’s been back and forth to court and feels like the court system has failed him and his kids and now he feel like the only way to get across to his babymama is through violence and going to jail or just turing his back on them and i dont want either of thoes There was a time when i was able give him word of encouragement but im running out of thing to say to him he cries evey day and i dont know what to do and it hurts me and my baby to see him hurt. Sincerly (his words) GOOD FATHER BROKEN”

- Daisha (25, NY)

California Case Study:

“My husband has a son that we have not seen since he was 4 not by our choice, his mother told my husband he didn’t need to be in his life right now. They never were married and there was no custody agreement or court order for child support, can she come back now and file for back child support? we tried to find her but we never could.“

Answer:

Assuming, as stated in the question, that there has been no child support order issued by any court in the past on this case, for example as part of a paternity action or otherwise.

(governed by California Family Code Section 4009): “An original order for child support may be made retroactive to the date of filing the petition, complaint, or other initial pleading. If the parent ordered to pay support was not served with the petition, complaint, or other initial pleading within 90 days after filing, and the court finds that the parent was not intentionally evading service, the child support order shall be effective no earlier than the date of service.”

In other words, A child support order may only be retroactive to the date the original paperwork asking for a child support order was filed with the court. Thus, if the mother of the child seeks child support (i.e., asks the court to issue a child support order), she must first file papers with the court to get a hearing in which the judge may issue a child support order. She must also “serve” those papers on the father, notifying him that she is seeking a court order for child support. Father is entitled to “due process,” meaning, he must receive fair notice that mother is seeking a child support order against him, and that if he doesn’t agree to pay voluntarily, that he has the right to a hearing to contest her claims.

If mother served the father within 90 days of filing the appropriate child support papers with the court, then any child support order that the court may issue can only be retroactive to the date of the initial filing of such paperwork with the court. If mother does not “serve” father with the papers within 90 days of filing them with the court (and father wasn’t intentionally evading service), then any child support order can only be retroactive to the date of “service.”

In either case, any child support order could only go back as far as the time those papers were either filed with the court, or served on the husband, if not served within 90 days of filing with the court.