It Doesn’t End Automatically, Write Into the Order That It Terminates at a Certain Time
Video Transcribed: Do you have to pay child support right now? And is the child in question getting ready to be 18? Do you have questions about that? My name is Ryan Cannonie, I am the Tahlequah family attorney for the Wirth Law Office in Tahlequah.
And one thing that comes up sometimes in these child support cases and custody cases, in general, is when you start talking about child support of an older child, and how much child support do you have to pay, there’s a calculation, like five Excel spreadsheets that can work in an amount there. But when do you get to stop paying is usually the second question after how much, and the window you get to stop paying, it kind of depends.
So most people would say, well, when the kids reach 18, you can stop paying. Not always true. So when a child hits 18, they’ve reached the majority, normally you would be able to stop paying. It’s not going to be automatic.
You’re usually going to have to unless it’s written into the order that it terminates at a certain time, then you’re going to have to go in and ask for modification, showing that you don’t need to pay this anymore.
Otherwise, they’ll just keep assessing that from you. So it’s important to either put it in the order in the first place or to get all that ready so that once your kid turns 18, you can get in there and get that child support stopped.
Now, the way you reason it depends. If they are still in school, let’s say they turned 18 in, well, fall, winter, November, December of their senior year, you may still have to go ahead and pay child support on that child through graduation.
If they’re still living in the same home, sometimes you have to pay up until they’re in their twenties. I believe when they’re 20 years old. So just because a child hits 18, don’t just stop paying child support.
Even if they’re out of the house, out of school, don’t just stop paying child support because you may have one of those orders that don’t automatically terminate. And you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you were supposed to be paying and you stopped.
If you find yourself in a situation where child support is an issue, where you have questions about it, then please give us a call, hit up our website, tahlequahattorney.com. Send us a little web form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Maybe we can help.
