Failing to Make Your Agreement an Order of the Court
Here is how the scenario goes: Father and Mother, after deciding to separate, will usually obtain an initial child support order, whether through the Family Law Courts or the Department of Children’s Services. Then something happens and there is a change in circumstances, which warrant a change in the child support amount.
This can be a loss of a job and income or the child comes and lives more or primarily with the payer of the child support. Whatever the case, and now since time has passed and the parties are on speaking terms, they agree between themselves that the payer should be paying less or nothing at all. But they never take the next critical step, which is to put the agreement in writing and file it with the court for the court’s signature and filing it as an order of the court! Then, sometime later, which can be years and typically when there is another breakdown between them, the party who was receiving the child support says, “You know you still owe me child support for the past few years.” This can amount to a huge child support arrears due and owing. This large principal amount can also be entitled to interest. So avoid the mistake – get all your agreements in writing and if the agreement changes a prior court order, make sure you get the new agreement filed with the court.
Failing to Require Compliance with Paperwork
Under the Judgment of Dissolution, it is quite common to see parties still needing to transfer title to certain property items awarded to the other spouse. For example, a house, car, life insurance policy, retirement accounts, or any property with a title document can potentially fall into this category. It is all too common for the parties to not follow up and transfer title into their name. Be sure to get the title documents before the Judgment of Dissolution is entered – this way, once the Judgment is filed and the case is finalized, it actually will be finalized in its entirety.
For more information about annulments and other family law matters, contact the Reape-Rickett Law Firm at 661-288-1000. They are located at 25152 Springfield Court, Suite 100 in Valencia.