Understanding Child Support Due Dates
Hi, I’m Tulsa child support attorney Clint Hastings. I practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I focus on fathers’ rights. Today I’m answering a quick question from a viewer. When is child support due if it doesn’t state a due date in my orders? Now this gets overlooked more than you would think.
Typically, a custody order with child support orders in it will say it’s due on the first of the month or the fifth of the month or whatever date might be agreed upon. If there’s not a different date than the first of the month, then usually a first of the month due date is put in by default by one of the attorneys or the judge if the judge decides the case. However, if it got overlooked and there’s no due date at all, arguably it’s due any time during that month, and you could vary it from month to month.
Working with Your Ex-Spouse on a Due Date
At some point your ex-wife or wife may seek to modify this to get an actual due date if it’s that much of a big deal to her or creates problems and in that case it’s probably not worth you going to court to fight as to whether it’s due on the 1st or the 5th or the 20th. Some people do want it to be in conjunction with their first paycheck of the month or one of their paychecks of the month, but ultimately, you’re going to spend more time worrying about it than just working with your ex or your wife on picking a date so that there is some consistency.
Importance of Timely Child Support Payments
In fact, you may just want to suggest one to her if it’s not in the order and say, hey look can we agree on this date and maybe she’ll do it and you can simply do an agreed order stating the actual due date or just go by agreement out of court on it. But I think the key is here, and I tell this to every client emphatically, make sure you keep up with your child support payments. Don’t let that due date or lack of a due date make you think that there’s no due date because it’s going to at least be due each month, even if that’s not clearly stated, and you don’t want to get behind.
Need Legal Assistance?
It’s easy to let yourself slide a little and next thing you know two months have gone by, three months have gone by, you’re too far behind, it’s hard to catch up, she’s going to take court action, you’re going to end up paying attorney’s fees one way or the other and that is not worth it. Hope this helps. Give us a call at 918-962-0900 for a consultation if you have an issue like this and or let us represent you to get things changed to establish that due date if you need to. Thanks for watching, I’m Clint Hastings, the Tulsa Dads.Law attorney.
