Columnist Sandra Thompson: No breaks on child support payments

Sandra Thompson

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 8:46 a.m.

Sandra Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or through e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com.

Although a Las Vegas man has been paying $300 a month in child support for many years, he still owes thousands of dollars.

But his children will never see a penny of it.

If you think that's odd, consider this: His children are in their 30s.

Vince's case has taken so many twists and turns that he can't even get a straight answer on how much he truly owes. Talk to this agency and the figure is $13,000 in interest and $17,000 in support. Talk to that agency and it grows to $55,000. According to Vince's records, he has paid about $45,000 over the years.

A series of errors, some missed payments and an "impossible" law have contributed to the problem, Vince says.

A Vietnam veteran, Vince was a long-haul truck driver in the 1970s. One day he came home to find that his wife had sold the house, cleaned out the bank accounts and fled with their four children. For some time, he didn't know where they were.

When his ex-wife denied him visitation, despite a California court order to the contrary, Vince says he did refuse to pay child support for a time.

"I used the money to get the court's attention," he says. "I had no visitation. If the court enforced the child support order, why not the visitation order?"

Vince eventually paid child support -- and continued to pay. In the early 1980s the system made an error in what was credited to the account. Vince says it was an honest mistake, but it was never corrected. In 1995 Vince learned that interest would be tacked on, even though he had been making monthly payments. The interest far exceeded what he thought he owed.

Although the payments were deducted from his paychecks, Vince later learned that his employer had not been sending the money to the California agency. That put him in a deeper hole.

Vince says it's all a money collection game -- "a revenue enhancement for the state of California" -- since none of it is going to his children or even his ex-wife. He says his ex-wife at one time went on welfare, but was "double-dipping" (taking payments from two counties). She may have committed a crime, Vince says, but he's the one who must pay.

"I'm not against child support," Vince says. "I'm against unreasonable amounts and no flexibility in the court system."

Vince remarried a woman with four sons, whom he raised as his own and supported because their father did not pay support. After that marriage failed, Vince married a woman whose daughter is now 17, whom he helps to support. He says he has a good relationship with all but one of the nine children.

Vince says the child support snafus have hurt his credit rating. He is hounded from time to time by collection agencies. He faces suspension of his driver's license for not paying support for children in their 30s.

According to the federal Bradley Amendment, child support arrears can't be modified or eliminated, Vince says. But there are examples in Clark County Family Court where the amount has been reduced. There are many cases of custodial parents -- primarily women -- who have been fighting the system, as well as their children's fathers, for support. But there are other cases of noncustodial parents -- primarily men -- that also go against the grain. From time to time, we will examine the emotionally charged cases from both perspectives.

"The Bradley Amendment all but ensures that any parent who has a dip in cash flow will be buried under a debt that cannot be legally escaped," Vince says.

He reiterates that he's not against paying support, but believes the law should be modified to consider extenuating circumstances such as reduced income, disability, imprisonment, etc.

He cites the example of a divorced father who, while working for Lockheed in 1990, was captured in Kuwait and spent nearly five months as an Iraqi hostage. The night after his release, Vince says, the man was arrested for not paying $1,425 in child support while he was a hostage.