soapboxdiner

Benjamins and ambivilance

I don't care what all the cool kids say about the state of Washington - this is a pretty alright place to live. It's true! If you've got a need, the state will fix it. Got a kid and but no daddy? The state will fix it - fix it real, real good.

And that is just one reason why I heart WA state.

So, back to topic at hand. Yup. We're going back to court to modify our child support, thanks to Daddy I've Been Wronged and the Office of Support Enforcement's policy to review, upon request, any standing order over two years old. It's all very exciting stuff, really.

You see, Daddy hasn't worked in about a year and a half. Ergo, he hasn't paid any support. Now, I could get all bent over this and call OSE every month demanding actions to collect, but eh. I've been a single mother for 7 years and quite frankly, I've exhausted my "get bent over his sorry ass" reserves.

This will be our third modification. At the first, I was clueless and got screwed. The court ordered Daddy's proportionate share of support at $50/month because he was under such extreme financial hardship, what with him buying a cushy house in the burbs and all. Luckily, the state took 100% of that child support to repay the TANF aid I'd received when I was 1. Pregnant, 2. Giving and recooperating from giving birth, and 3. Going to school to educate myself in a profession that would provide the kid and I with enough for us to live on. So for the kid's first two years, I got no support at all.

Then I got smart. Or angry. Or enough money together to hire representation to take His Sorry Ass back to court. Now, it wasn't a lawyer that I got. It was a paralegal. They drafted my forms and that was it. I went to court. I presented my case in front of the judge(s). I flirted with HSA's lawyer and through batted eyelashes got strategic counselling out of him. Me. Alone. And we came away from the year-long process with a 1000% increase in support, once we counted the medical allowance and daycare. In brief, we kicked his I've Been Wronged ass all the way back to jump street.

And now, we are back again. He's threatened getting jobless. He's threatened leaving the country. He's threatened taking me back to court. He's called me and called me and called me, telling me I ruined his life, broke up his marriage, caused every last bad turn his life has taken. I've been informed I'm a horrible mother. I've been told I'm the Biggest Bitch In The Whole World. It just doesn't phase me anymore. Say what you will, Daddy. I'm stone. I don't need your money (right now) so if you don't pay - well, sooner or later you'll have to get a job. The state will collect your debt. And if I weren't nearly as pragmatic as I am, I'd just toss this up and say, "Fuck it. Let the state figure out the math." But I know circumstances can change. I may not need it now but someday, maybe, I will. That isn't a bridge I want to burn. It isn't a right I want to relinquish to chance and a government agency's disgruntled underpaid employee. You know what I'm saying?

So, it's back to court. God dammit. He thinks being unemployed will help him. WRONG. The state is already looking for assets to put on lien. They consider unemployment temporary, so they will impute an income to him based on past earnings.

He thinks having another child from his failed marriage will help his cause of a reduction in support obligation. WRONG. They never drafted an Order of Support in the divorce, therefore, he has no legimate legal proof and that child's support is not admissable.

That just leaves him getting a J O B. Now, I for one can without hestitation testify to how hard the market is right now. Two years as a temp who couldn't get hired to say my life, I think I know a thing or two about how Bush has fucked the working masses. But the state doesn't care about how hard the market is. They care about making sure money gets where money is owed. If he doesn't have a job by the end of all this, they will charge him with contempt of our Order and will issue a bench warrant for his arrest. And since he's so graciously filed suit and provided updated addresses and so forth, I don't think it will be too hard for the police to track him down and put His Sorry Ass in jail for two weeks. Then suspend his driver's license and other nastiness to provide him with external incentive to work.

I don't think he cares much though. Right now. We'll see how much he cares when Bubba turns him into a man named Sue, er... Shirley, er... surely.

Fucker.

I WILL kick his ass again. I know this system in a way he does not. Amazing what can happen when you care and you pay attention, eh?

I better shut up about it for now though. The last thing I need is to jinx this shit.

6:26 pm - 09.24.03
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