My name is David Matthews Sr. I am a 39 yrs old black man with a wife and 2 step-daughters and 1 son from a previous marriage. Back in 1994 at the time my divorce I was order by the child support court to pay $120.00 week making only $14.00 an hour which adds up too $480 to $600 a month for one child.
I tried repeatedly asking child support to reduce this amount being I could not afford a lawyer and in the end result that i had to move because i could not afford to live there any longer and pay any outstanding debts from my marriage. Since then my ex-wife has drop and reopen the services of child support enforcement 2 times depending on what mood she is in or if we are getting along.
And when she drop child support services i paid her monthly by check.in September she reopen the services of child support enforcement due too I was being a week late at times sending her her check.By October my job was ordered to deduct my child support amount from my pay so ordered by the courts.
Around January i received a notice from Child Support Recovery in Atlanta Ga. That I was $460.00 in the arrears for the month of September when she reopen the case.in July I was court ordered me to appear in court for arrears totaling over $18,000 in back child support for the years their services was not being used and contempt of court.
I hired the services of Mr. John Calhoun Sr. To represent me in court. Our defense was how can they be seeking $18.000 in arrears when i was receiving statements from there main office in Atlanta stating i was less than $400.00 behind. But anyway the judge agreed with Mr. Calhoun due too conflicting arrears statements by child support enforcement and made a motion for child support enforcement to drop seeking $18.000 and not to further pursue me for any arrears and he also said if she wanted the $18.000 then she would have
to sue me for it.
By the end of July the company which i worked for nearly 3 years was preparing for closer release me along with 80 or so other employees. I did not find work again until late september at a lesser pay. I took all the proper steps by telling child support about my unemployment.
I filled out paperwork for reduce child support payment due too my lesser paying job which they rejected. On 3-7-03 my checking account was frozen with my mortgage payment $835.00 and a car payment and money belonging
to my wife. That same day I went down to child support and talk to my case manager. To my surprise without knowledge a new person, a kid with only 4 month on the job was assigned as case manager. He made it known
to me that child support was again seeking $24.000 in arrears and a motion was filed in the court back in August for reconsideration.
After talking to him i went over to superior court to review my file and again to my surprise no record of any judge decision was in my file. No record of me ever being in court on that day. And no record of the court
recorder being requested or even being there. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Is this what child support about? IS THIS RETALIATION FOR THE CASE THEY LOSS AGAINST ME IN JULY?
I know that this may sound like a legal problem but I am in no financial position to keep getting an a attorney every time they want to make an example of which was told to me by the case manager. I have gone from making over $41.000 to almost $30.000. While I was out of work my house note fell behind about 2 month and i almost lost my home. I am on a month to month standing with my creditors and cannot be late again or the bank will take my home.
I am not a dead beat dad. There are a lot fathers out there like me being taken advantage of by child support.
An attorney once told me that there is a lot wrong doing being done by child support and the media tends to look the other way when it comes to child support enforcement and how they enforce. All I am asking is for you just to
take a look into what has happen and make your on judgment.
David
SAVANNAH, Georgia
U.S.A.
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