No North Dakota parent wishes for his or her child to go without the financial support that the child needs to live a healthy and secure life. Most allegedly deadbeat parents who fail to pay the child support they owe are not able to pay due to real financial difficulties. While there are some parents who purposefully do not pay their child support payments in violation of court orders, parents who really cannot afford to pay are perhaps even more prevalent.
North Dakota courts try to calculate child support obligations as best as they can based on the income levels of both parents. In almost all cases, where one parent has full custody of a child and the other parent has visitation rights, the noncustodial parent will be required to pay some amount of child support. North Dakota child support laws provide guidelines that courts use to determine the exact amount that a parent should pay based on income; however, income levels are not guaranteed. A noncustodial parent who owes child support money might lose his or her job or suffer some other kind of financial calamity that makes it difficult to continue paying the child support he or she owes.
Whenever a North Dakota parent’s income is jeopardized, and he or she is in danger of not being able to meet a child support obligation, the parent may wish to contact a North Dakota family law attorney as soon as possible to evaluate the best next steps to take. Navigating the issue of not having enough money to pay for child support as soon as possible is essential, and this is not a matter to be taken lightly.
