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Father pays outstanding child support due to terms modification he was never informed of and still gets jail time
Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2014-01-12 03:11
Story here. Excerpt:
'Clifford Hall says he's more than happy to pay child support for his 11-year-old son.
...
But Hall says when the amount of child support was modified no one told him.
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When Hall and his ex were in Judge Lisa Millard's court last November he owed nothing.
"Opposing counsel testified twice that he's all paid up," says Elam.
But the attorney representing the child's mother wanted Hall to pay her three grand in attorney fees and Judge Millard agreed.
Court documents also reveal Hall wasn't following the court's scheduled times to pick his son up for visitation.
Another modification Hall says he knew nothing about.
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"This entire situation is shocking to me," says community activist Quanell X. "I've never seen one like this."
Quanell X wants the state's judicial board to investigate.
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Judge Millard tells Fox 26 after she found Hall in contempt he walked out of the courtroom which she says is a big no no.
Judge Millard says Hall's attorney could have filed a motion for reconsideration which would have given her an opportunity to hear from both sides again and reevaluate the situation.
Hall's attorney is now working on an appeal.
Hall says in a few days he will turn himself in to the jail.'
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Also see:
- Father sentenced to 6 months in jail for paying too much child support
- Snopes.com has commentary on this story here.
- There is a change.org petition currently active seeking the judge's removal from the bench.
- Log in to post comments
Comments
*BARF*!
If it's true that Mr. Hall walked out of the courtroom before he was excused by the judge, that was indeed an act of contempt. At the same time, it's a flagrant act of judicial misconduct to use ex parte proceedings to create a legal and financial liability for a person and not inform them, never mind the whole concept of ex parte when it is not absolutely necessary. While I probably would not have left the courtroom before the proceedings were finished, that's just me. But I understand why anyone faced with such blatant malevolent underhandedness would do so.
It's a matter in this case of who done who wrong to who first, and who done worse, too. The answer to both questions is: she did.
Does she deserve to be on the bench for this flagrant violation of a citizen's rights to equal protection and due process of law?
HELL NO!!
She can go get a job someplace else. I'm thinking she might be good at telemarketing.
I'm not following. When did
I'm not following. When did he overpay? I read that before court he paid $3000 in BACK support. That indicates he was behind, does it not? I'm also unclear how someone could not know they had a modification unless they move and don't give the courts a current address. Anyone with a current child support order is required to always provide the court with current contact information, but some people seldom take the time to submit the form.
A modification starts with a motion request to the court, then a summons to the other party to appear for the hearing. This is hand served to the recipient and an affidavit of delivery is required (some courts allow certified mail with signature upon delivery). Two mail attempts must be made and proven to have failed (all service attempts must be verified by a third party). If these attempts to serve the father with a summons to appear in court for the purpose of child support modification fail, then an ad in the newspaper must run in his last known city of residence for several weeks.
Only after all these attempts to summons the father to the modification hearing fail, can the mother go to court without him present. Also all court documents get sent to any attorney for him on record and placed in his court file.
I don't see any mention of the modification being an ex-parte action. (one sided action, ex-parte hearings need to be granted, by showing evidence of why the other party should not be informed of the legal action, usually there is a risk of imminent danger or damage to the requesting party). I think the father is either lying about not knowing or he could not be served, so he never received his summons notice - not that the mother requested that he not be summons at all......But I could be wrong.
I'm also unclear if father was visiting the child more or less then stipulated in the parenting plan, as it just says he wasn't picking his child up on time.
Until I know more, I am going to hold off on my opinion.
Also some other comments indicate his jail time is for contempt of walking out of his hearing while the judge was speaking to him and not related to his child support (and is there more to it like mouthing off?). The judge may have let her anger get the best of her. Hopefully he wont spend any time in jail.
edit: made a correction to one sentence.
The father's story is getting
The father's story is getting debunked.
This guys comment history on reddit sheds some light:
http://www.reddit.com/user/kublakhan1816
Public record of court filings indicate the father was informed of modifications and even had an attorney.
The visitation issue involves the father randomly taking the son without informing or contacting the mother. One time taking the child out of school during the day and causing the mother great worry. Not getting the son to football practice/games and not returning the son on Christmas day.
more...
Reddit user "kublakhan1816" makes this comment:
Good for you. I went ahead and checked the Harris County court website. I'm assuming based on the names mentioned in the article that this is the case: 200320180 - LANE, DONNA J vs. HALL, CLIFFORD RAY JR (Court 310)
It looks like there was a "Petition to Modify Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship" and a "Motion for Enforcement by Contempt of a Child
Support Order and Visitation Order" filed on 04/19/2013. It looks like citation was issued. Return of citation happened on 5/6/2013. It looks like he filed an answer to the petition to modify and the enforcement through his attorney on 05/24/2013. Then it looks like several temporary orders were set and then passed on. Then they had a hearing on the enforcement action on 11/18/2013. He was sentenced to jail that day. There appears to be even more going on than the article says due to the fact that his visitation was suspended and there was a capias order entered. Then there are attorney withdraws.
(Also, if you want to say that he didn't know about the previous modification, which happened in 2011, he filed an answer to that one too and had an attorney. He filed his answer to the previous one on 08/18/2011.)
Reading through this guy's file and the documents -- especially the enforcement where the guy paid $0.00 some months and even took the kid from school on a day he wasn't even supposed to have visitation--, I don't believe a word of this article. He wants to act like he just showed up to the court for the first time and didn't know what was going on. Then an angry judge threw him in jail because the "system is broken." Give me a break.
I Disagree
The idea that a father does not have a right to see his son when he would like, and should be jailed, despite not owing child support is a travesty of justice. Hell, child support should not exist. If you share responsibilities for the child, no person should have to pay the other. The financial and rearing responsibilities should be shared 50/50. But I'm describing what it would be like in a perfect world. And we all know this world is far from perfect. I tell you, the day a woman is sent to jail for seeing her children too much is the day I become a full-fledged feminist. Until then, I couldn't care less about their movement.