Comments on: Clients saves a ton of money http://njchildsupportattorney.com/2009/05/31/clients-saves-a-ton-of-money/ Jef Henninger, Esq. Fighting for you in any court in New Jersey! Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:12:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: whitecollarcrimenews http://njchildsupportattorney.com/2009/05/31/clients-saves-a-ton-of-money/#comment-51 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:33:57 +0000 http://njchildsupportattorney.com/?p=71#comment-51 To make my position clear, the situation for everyone is different. I cannot tell anyone to do something now or later or ever. However, I can say that anyone having any child support issues or any court matters should meet with an attorney before doing anything. The Court will tell you the same thing if you try to file pro se. In addition, just because you hire an attorney when you lose your job does not mean that the attorney will advise you to file a motion right away. As an attorney, I certainly know about the various child support laws such as the ARS but when you have a limited supply of funds to hire an attorney, filing a motion right away is rarely a smart idea. Instead, working with an attorney that will develop a long term strategy with you and then file a motion is probably the better move. Of course, arrears will build up but that is the system that we live in. I don’t like it anymore than the people paying the child support.

]]> By: Bruce Eden, Civil Rights Director, DADS-NJ http://njchildsupportattorney.com/2009/05/31/clients-saves-a-ton-of-money/#comment-50 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:33:13 +0000 http://njchildsupportattorney.com/?p=71#comment-50 I noticed in your blog that you should hire a lawyer upon losing your job, but then state one should file a motion after losing their job a few months after the fact, because judges won’t rule on changed circumstances because it’s too soon.

There is a problem with that. It’s called NJSA 2A:17-56.23 (anti-retroactive statute)–the Bradley Amendment. If you don’t file a motion immediately upon losing your job, you cannot modify any arrearages except from the time you file the motion. In today’s economy, a lot of child support payors were making big “bucks” and are now on unemployment. And, a lot of these payors were paying big support & alimony orders like 3,000 per month and up.

I had lawyers telling members of my group to wait 3-5 months to file. In several cases that would’ve put the payor almost $20,000-$25,000 behind in arrearages with no hope of modifying or recouping that money because of the Bradley Amendment.

You need to elucidate this position because a lot of people paying support & alimony are becoming unemployed in this economy.

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