Something is wrong with the our legal system and how child support is handled in this country. I don’t pay child support and have both of my children in the house with my wife and I, but it doesn’t take a person paying child support to know something is wrong with this case.
Clifford Hall is a decent man and wants to do the right thing by his 11 year old son. For whatever reason, he and the mother of his son don’t live together. As a result, he has to pay child support for the boy, which Clifford doesn’t have a problem with this arrangement. He is grown enough to know he fathered the child, so it is his responsibility to pay for the child. Everything sounds great so far, right?
Things began to go wrong when the amount of his child support payments were modified and he wasn’t notified of these changes.
“I discovered for some reason his employer was withholding a large amount some weeks a small amount some weeks a zero amount some weeks,” says Hall’s attorney Tyesha Elam.
“I didn’t want to go to jail basically,” Hall says.
So Hall quickly paid almost 3 grand in back child support.
When Hall and his ex were in Judge Lisa Millard’s court last November he owed nothing.
“Opposing counsel testified twice that he’s all paid up,” says Elam.
But the attorney representing the child’s mother wanted Hall to pay her three grand in attorney fees and Judge Millard agreed.
Court documents also reveal Hall wasn’t following the court’s scheduled times to pick his son up for visitation.
Another modification Hall says he knew nothing about.
“The Judge ended up sentencing him to 6 months in jail.” Elam says.
“When she said I remand you to the Harris County Jail for 180 days my mouth just dropped,” says Hall.
“This entire situation is shocking to me,” says community activist Quanell X. “I’ve never seen one like this.”
Quanell X wants the state’s judicial board to investigate.
“The court failed the child,” he says. “The court failed Mr. Hall the system broke down.”
Source: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/24359680/2014/01/03/father-pays-outstanding-child-support-still-gets-jail-time
I would say the court has failed the child here as well. This doesn’t make any sense to put the man in jail. How is he going to pay the $3,000 in attorney fees, which shouldn’t have been required because he was up to date on the child support payments in the first place. There shouldn’t have been a need to go to the court.
Secondly, how is Mr. Hall going to pay the child support for the child because while he is in jail, he will not be working. Not working means he isn’t earning any money. Thus, he cannot make these payments. The amounts will continue to pile up and creates the opportunity to financially ruin Mr. Hall.
Thirdly, while he is in jail, Mr. Hall’s son has to live half a year without the presence of his father in his life. He has to endure the stigma of having an incarcerated father as well. How is he going to deal with the mental baggage that comes with all of this?
Not sure how this case is going to turn out, but I hope the people of that district ban together, vote and get Judge Lisa Millard out of office during her next run. She isn’t fit to judge a beauty pageant if she things what she rendered is anything remotely close to justice.
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