Dad claiming $1500, self employed, I make $3.000

[Carla21]

He asks for 50/50 custody, the child is 2 years old, didn`t spend time with him had a restraining order for domestic violence and didn`t pay any child support for 1year and a half but wants 50/50

He is asking 50/50 because he wants me to pay him child supportand his attornerney`s fees. Is this possible, I am providing everything for the child since the first day he was born, health insurance, day care, food, clothes doctor`s visit`s, a stable and lovable environment. The most his father intrracted with him were briefly visits which i never denied them after the injuctioin was not extented and also offered to help him to get accustomed with the child`s routines, meals etc. He is lying through his attorney that I am maliciously refusing him visitation which is not true, i have pics to prove and i keep a journal. He is hiding his mmmoney somewhere because he makes regular trips to europe to see his family but never asked to see the child. After the restrainining order was not extende (for 9 months), he waited a week to conact the child and 2 weeks later went for vacatuion to europe never asking to see his son.  How likely will a judge give him 50/50 and based on our combined incomes chils support will be calculated? I am a full time working mother and he is self employed, construction worker,claiming whatever he wants. He lived in my house for free by paying the mortgage, because I left and rented an apt  thinking the abue will stop but got worse How likely will I have to pay him child support if the judge orders 50/50/ or will the judge order 50/50 in this case? I went through hell with the system and having to spend money on attorney`s fees because I want the best for my child. Now we are getting closer to the hearing and i am nervous because on my currently income we barrely make it. Any advice anyone please?

[sparklefairy]

Talk to a lawyer.

I don't know what courts are like where you are, or what your particular judge or magistrate is like.
 

[Springshowers]

I thought if you were able to work full time they could calculate what you WOULD earn if you worked at the wage available to you? Maybe they will calculate it that way? I don't know which areas do it that way... but I know I have seen it mentioned here in different threads. It sounds like such a difficult situation. *hugs*

[Carla21]

Thanks for the answers. I talked to my attorney but she said the judges are inclined to gve 50/50 and I sould have to play detective and find out where he is hiding his money. This means to supoena every bank or credit union in the area, but when you are working full time and have a 2 year old and nobody to help the free time is limited. So it is very possible that the judge could order me to pay him child support unless I can prove that he has money...I am worried because I have been to a few hearings and the judges don`t have time to listen to all the circumstances, their time is limited.  I don`t have the extra money to hire an investigator or supoena all the banks. Will see what the judge will think about this situation.

[Carla21]

By the way it`s Florida, Broward County

[provocativa]

Lawyer up!  You can at least supoena his passport records I would think.  Do you know anyone he works with you could supoena to testify that he does work? 

It really varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  Hopefully your lawyer will know something about your particular judge and how s/he tends to rule on these issues.  Keep working and don't give up hope.  They didn't give my X 50/50.
 

[lilgreen]

If there is any way to prove his neglect, that will help with custody. Was the violence directed only at you while you were alone? Or was your child with you? DV against the mom sadly bears little weight for custody unless the child is involved in the violence. Ridiculous!

My X has f/t employment but a significant chunk of his income is from self-employment work. He claims absurd things as tax write-offs/deductions, using flights that had been reimbursed by his contractor, etc. When it came time to sort out child support, I said bluntly 'you know as well as I do that you can't legally claim 2/3 of your write offs'. I was prepared to accuse him of tax fraud and report him in which case he would have to go through a painful audit and try to cover his ass, which I knew could not hold. So he had claimed only $3,000 self-employed income, but he didn't challenge my re-assessment of almost $30,000. 

X and I each had to submit official financial statements which include the past 3 years of our tax returns. This is standard here. Can you access that? Then you can gauge what he could be hiding. Does he do contract for a single company? That could make it easy to get income info.

Good luck!  It's so not fun. I think I good strategy, though, is to work on your case against his parenting capacity and motivation. 

[Carla21]

He has always ignored the child, the violence happpened while the child was there, never acknoledged his presence, like he didn`t even existed.It`s hard to prove this to a judgem it`s my word against his, it is so frustrating.  Now suddenly wants custody becuase I filed for child suppport. He is not licensed do do construction work, but he gets a lot of jobs and I found out he has opened a company. I guess he has a bank account associated with that or just call IRS and tell them that he is not claiming his income. I want the child to know his father but he ha sthreatened before that he will take him from me and I willl never see him again. He has strong ties to his family in Europe. He will do anything just noy to pay child support and because he wants revenge that I dared to leave him. How to proove all these things to a judge. They just see that he is the father and has rights, that`s all.