What Happens to My Child Support Payments After an Accident?
Posted June 24th, 2015 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Family Law, Personal Injury.
Having a child is a lifelong responsibility, no matter if you’re a constant in the child’s life or you don’t get to see him/her for a long period of time. That child is a part of you and many of us do all we can to protect and nurture our children so they can grow up to be healthy, successful, and happy. But sometimes, there are blocks in the road. You may be divorced from your spouse and never get to see your child. But you still have to support him/her.
But what happens if you can’t even support yourself? For instance, you’ve been paying child support on a regular basis. However, you get into an accident at work, leaving you disabled and unable to go back to work. Child support payments are backing up yet you don’t have the funds to pay. Finally, the insurance company comes through with a decent offer. Your accident settlement will be coming any day now and you can soon pay off your debts. Does this include your child support payments?
The answer is yes. Any past child support payments that you owe will be taken out of your personal injury settlement. In fact, if you are getting a structured settlement the courts may consider this as income and can take your child support payments out of your settlement. In New Jersey, there is even legislation that makes personal injury attorneys pay past due child support amounts out of any awards the attorney recovers for his/her client. What will happen is a lien will be placed against your settlement if you owe child support. That lien has to be satisfied before the remainder of the settlement is paid out to you. New Jersey is very strict when it comes to paying for child support. Even if your personal injury settlement is less than what you owe in child support, the courts could give your entire settlement to satisfy your child support payments.
If you are having problems with your child support and need the help of a family lawyer, don’t wait much longer. Contact the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone today for a free consultation and we will get you the help that you need.
