Why Do You Have to Pay Support if You Don’t See Your Kids?

An Orange County child support attorney provides assistance in understanding your support obligations. If you are a parent and your parental rights aren’t terminated, you may have to pay child support if you are not raising your children. You will have to pay this support to your ex for your children regardless of whether you see your children or are in their lives. Support also has to be paid regardless of whether you were ever married to the other parent, and regardless of whether you wanted the child or not. 

Child support always has to be paid if you are the father or mother to a child because it is sound public policy to ensure that each child receives financial contributions from both parents. The only question you will need to address is what amount of support is due. In some cases, the state will try to collect child support even if the custodial parent has not asked for support.

An Orange County child support attorney can help you to understand what support payments will likely be necessary in your situation and can assist you in going to court to argue for a modification or reduction of child support in appropriate circumstances.

Why You Always Have to Pay Child Support

According to the Superior Court of California, “California state law says that every parent has a duty to financially support his or her child.”

It is considered good public policy to make certain that every child receives appropriate financial support. Raising children can be very expensive, and the child did not choose to be born or select his or her parents. A child should not have to suffer consequences of inadequate support because he or she is born to parents not actively involved in his life who do not want to pay support.

The public policy position of requiring all parents to pay child support is so strongly in favor of ensuring every child is supported, parents are not able to voluntarily waive child support in a prenuptial agreement. If you create a prenup saying you will not pay child support, that clause in the prenuptial agreement will not be considered valid. You can waive spousal support if you follow the right process for doing so, but there is no process for absolving yourself of responsibility to support your kids.

The state will also take independent action to secure child support payments in certain circumstances, even if a custodial parent does not initiate a request for support. As the Superior Court of California explains, if the custodial parent receives public assistance like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), then Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) will automatically initiate a child support case against the other parent.

How Can You End Your Child Support Obligation?

Whether or not you see your children or are involved in their life, you typically must pay support for your children until they turn 18. If you have not paid support as required over the course of your child’s life, you may owe back payments and will have to continue making payments even when the child is older. Back payments will continue until you have repaid all that you owed in support. You cannot absolve yourself of a child support obligation through bankruptcy, so you will have to pay the amount that is due.

There are only a few very limited circumstances in which you will not have to pay support as a parent. Obviously, one of those circumstances is if your parental rights are terminated. If the child is put up for adoption and you agree to that adoption and give up your rights, you will no longer have to pay. This includes stepparent adoptions where the child’s other parent retains his or her parental rights.

Likewise, if you are a sperm donor through appropriate legal channels, such as donating by going through a donation clinic, you will not be responsible for paying to support any children. If you informally donate sperm to friends, however, then the issue of whether you may some day end up paying support becomes a murkier one, even if you have a written contract in place saying you don’t have to pay.

Getting Help from An Orange County Child Support Attorney

An Orange County child support attorney can provide assistance in understanding child support issues. If you are being made to pay and feel you are being asked to pay too much, an Orange County child support attorney can help you to ask the court for a support modification. Give us a call at (866)237-8129 or contact us online to find out more.