Can I have enforcement of child suport order suspended and can it be reinstated later?
Question Details:
Children's father and I were never married and split after 8 years. We went to court for support, he is court ordered to pay and writes me a personal check every month. We after 1 year of this we decided to reconcile, I became pregnant with our 3rd child and we moved back in together. Neither one of us made any petitions to the court to drop the court order and he continues to pay, I use the money for the kids needs up keep of the home groceries and electric bill. It has recently been cause for discord in our relationship, I want to know if enforcement of the order can be suspended/reinstated?
In Michigan, a recpient of chid support can petition the court to suspend child support payments from the defendant. However, if you are receiving State Aid or State Support, the monies paid out to you via child support must still be repaid by the defendant to the court regardless of your petition to suspend payments because he has to repay the money the State provided you. If however, you never received any State Aid or benefits (i.e. food stamps, etc), but only your child's father monthly payments as ordered by the court, then you should be able to petiton the court the suspend them. I have done this on several occasions for clients in Michigan. You may want to check with your court first to see if this is possible in your area, and if so, then file a petiton to suspend the support payments.
