Reduce child support or at least reduce the consequences of failure to pay

The St. Petersburg Times reports today that filings to reduce child support in the Tampa courthouse almost doubled between 2005 and 2008 (the 2009 numbers aren't in yet).  In the St. Petersburg/Clearwater courthouses, the number of filings tripled, and in the county north of Clearwater, the filing went up fivefold.  The state's collection rate in that time period went down from 72% to 67% in that same time period.

Nothing about this is surprising.  I've seen articles about this happening in cities throughout the country for at least a year.  A more interesting statistic might be how much collection case filings have increased.  The saddest thing is that, when a payor falls behind by more than $2500, that payor's driver's license could be suspended.  Then, of course, as the article mentions, the payor can't get to work or find a new job, and child support falls further behind.

It's possible that this can be avoided, or at least the consequences of failing to pay can be reduced.

Too many payors wait until they fall behind or receive a notice of enforcement or contempt before they do anything.  By then, it's usually too late.  Immediately upon a pay reduction or job loss, a payor should seek modification of child support.  Child support can even be abated (temporarily stopped) when a job loss occurs in certain situations.

So, the trick is not to wait.  Call a lawyer (you've heard me say this a million times) right away when your job situation changes.  Don't wait until it's too late.  A jail cell is a bad place to negotiate your case from, especially when child support should have been adjusted long ago when the job loss occurred.