Mom needs maintenance from deadbeat dad

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I took my baby’s father to court for maintenance since he wasn’t doing anything for the child. The court granted him an order to pay, and he only made one month’s payment. Then after three months I went back to court and he was granted a garnish order, and to pay what he was owing as well. He only did that for three months then he resigned from his work.

It has been a year since he resigned and I never went back to court because I was working. Now things are tough and I’m no longer working. Will the court still help me get the maintenance even if the father is not working?

You did the correct thing when you went to court and obtained a maintenance order against your baby’s father, and also when he failed to consistently make the payments ordered by the court, you went back and had the manner of payment varied to a garnishee order, so the ordered sums could be deducted by his employers from his salary and paid over to the court for your child.

You say that the deductions under the garnishee order were only made for three months because he resigned his position and for the following year, you did nothing about his disobedience of the court order. This was a sad mistake on your part. He clearly acted intentionally when he resigned so that it would be impossible for the owed maintenance sums to be deducted by his employer.

You say you did nothing because you were working. In fact, what you did was to permit him to get away with his failure not only to provide for his child, but you also allowed him to get away with his contempt of court for the last year.

The short answer to your question about the court helping now is a resounding ‘yes’. You see, all the sums which he prevented from being deducted are still owed by him and he must pay it all. He must also, while the maintenance order remains in force, still continue to pay for the current periods as ordered. He cannot ever be free of his arrears ‘debt’, or of the obligation to make his current periodic payments unless the court makes an order on his application, discharging him from the whole or a part of the sum he was ordered to pay. Such an order will be effective only from the date it is made and ordered to commence.

The arrears for the whole period when he made no payment will still be owed by him and he would have to pay it all, either in a lump sum or portions of lump sums, until it is all paid up. While he is paying up the arrears, as I said, he must keep paying the current maintenance due for his contribution as ordered by the court.

The court’s primary interest in children’s maintenance matters is to ensure that the child receives adequate provisions from the parents to provide all the necessities for a good and healthy life. The fact that the father is not working does not exonerate him from his legal obligation. In addition, you must inform the court that he resigned from his job and that it was intentional on his part and since then he has made no effort to pay any part of the maintenance sums he was ordered to pay. Fathers who try to get out of their legal and moral obligation to provide for their children during court proceedings by using the ‘I am not working card’ are generally told by the judge to go and find work.

So you must go back to court. It is your child’s right that is the issue here, not yours. Your child is entitled to be maintained by you and by the father. When the father fails, refuses (as is the case here), and neglects to provide for his child, you are duty bound to go to court and ensure that orders are made which uphold your child’s right to receive support.

When you go back to the court you must ask that a default warrant is issued for the father for his arrears from the date his last payment was made up to the date your application is made and state clearly his intentional resignation from his job. This is very important, as it will bar him obtaining any variation to decrease the sum which had been ordered on the basis of his unemployed status, because he did it knowingly and intentionally to escape his obligations.

Do not worry, your child has everything to gain, but only if you do what is right. This means going back to the court and being prepared to do so each and every time the father fails to meet his parental and legal obligation.

Good luck and I wish for you, your child and all readers the very best for New Year and that you will all be safe, healthy, and prosper in all that you do.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.DISCLAIMER:The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney