The residents of Round Rock and the greater Austin metro area might think that most child support cases these days can be resolved without the help of an attorney. After all, some might see the calculation of child support to simply be a matter of doing the math to get to the right support amount.
Moreover, the State of Texas has many resources, available at little or no cost that can help a parent who needs to establish or enforce a support order.
However, things are not always so simple in the world of child support, and legal representation, or at least a consultation with an attorney in our law office, could prove helpful if not invaluable to an Austin resident who needs child support help.
Establishing child support is, in many situations, not as simple as taking a look at a person’s paycheck or tax return, as in many cases, a mother or father may be self-employed or have an income that is variable or non-traditional. For instance, someone who rents or sells real estate for a living may do horribly financially for months or even years, yet one good month will be enough to ensure they have plenty of money to afford support over the long-haul.
On a related point, a parent must consider whether the other parent is indeed earning all or he or she can, or, rather, is working a lower-paying job in order to get a lower support order and then counting on help from someone else, such as a sympathetic parent or friend.
Even enforcement of a child support order is not as simple as it may seem. In this respect, Texans need to remember that even when the State is willing to help, the State never acts as a parent’s private attorney. The State is there to protect its interest in seeing that child support gets paid according to Texas law and nothing else.
