When marriages fail or an unmarried couple separate and children are involved, child support may be granted or awarded through the courts. However, you may have been awarded the child support, you are now entitled to it as you have custodial guardianship of your children and you require the financial support in raising the children. In a perfect world, you receive your child support payments on time and without an argument or attempts by your ex to avoid making payments. Sadly, this is not a perfect world and there are parents who no longer feel the need to support their children or will try to strike out in anger at their ex so they do not pay on time. In other cases, the person required to pay child support may attempt to have the payments reduced or eliminated by making a false claim of poverty or reduced financial means.
Most parents who pay child support are good people who will work multiple jobs and move heaven and earth to make the payments as they love their children. But some will do anything they can to get out of making the payments, either through legal means or by simply not paying the right amount, not paying on time or not paying at all. If your payments are processed through a state agency with enforcement powers, you can often make your ex do the right thing. When the payments are made directly to you by your spouse, you and your children are at their mercy. If this is happening, you have to understand your options.
You can go take your ex to court to seek legal relief but you will have to present evidence showing that the only reason they are not paying the right amount (or anything at all) or you will accomplish little but adding legal costs to your burden. If you are seeking legal relief in terms of receiving child support payments, you and your lawyer should engage a private investigation firm. Most private investigation firms are skilled in investigating the financial situations of people they are investigating. These investigations are done with the utmost discretion so that the person being investigated will not know their finances are being looked at. The evidence that will be produced from these investigations, which can included written documentation as well as photographic and video-graphic evidence of your ex working or living a lifestyle that may be indicative of financial conditions that should not hinder their payment of child support. When presented to a court you will be in the best possible situation to gain financial justice for your children and yourself.
