This seems to be happening everywhere. Sounds like time for a national movement to fix this. And isn’t the fix to simply change the specific part of the law that says if a DNA test proves a guy’s not the father, he’s off the hook, no matter when it’s found out?
Florida man owes $10,000 for child who’s not his
Francisco Rodriguez owes more than $10,000 in back child support payments in a paternity case involving a 15-year-old girl who, according to DNA results and the girl’s mother, is not his daughter.
[…]
He says he knew nothing about the other girl until paperwork showed up about four years ago saying he was the father.He now has DNA results that show the 15-year-old girl wasn’t fathered by him. He even has an affidavit from the girl’s mother — a former girlfriend from 1990 — saying he’s “not the father” and asking that Rodriguez no longer be required to pay child support.
Yet the state of Florida is continuing to push him to pay $305 a month to support the girl, as well as the more than $10,000 already owed. He spent a night in jail because of his delinquent payments.
Why is he in such a bind?
He missed the deadline to legally contest paternity. That’s because, he says, the paperwork didn’t reach him until after the deadline had passed.
[…]
Rodriguez’s case highlights the legal dilemma states face over how to handle paternity cases. More than a third of children born in the United States are born to unmarried parents, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
No one but the state wants him to pay
This is less about paternity than it is about the STATE wanting to punish people who aren’t responsive to the STATE’s authority. Levying on default judgments happens all the time everywhere BUT usually there is a method to set aside such default judgments.
Now, many folks have a soft spot in their heads about Kiddies, and I can easily accept the notion of many so called judges not allowing defaults to be set aside in this area of the law.
Closer cases have been made where you can argue whether or not a non-dad can be held liable, but this case is not it.
Course, on the other hand, our taxes pay for the court system and its work load. So, why did the mother list the guy as the father? ((Your best guess should not qualify as the starting point of a binding judgement!))
The law never works for the innocent.
State employees have to justify their jobs.
Everytime America takes a step forward in freeing people in written law the society takes two steps backwards in culture. This happened with civil rights in the 60’s. And it happened with the feminist movement which gave female brats the power to destroy the hand that feeds them.
I feel for the guy. Having been sued for paternity three times by two different states.
My ex-wife had four children by three men (one mine) and she claimed another as mine. She goes on welfare. The state comes to me to collect so I send child support. I never missed a payment when I had her address (yes, I have proof from over 25 years ago). She moves to a different state and files for welfare claiming she had never been on welfare and that I had never paid support and that I fathered two of her children. First paternity suit. She moves to another state and did it again. Second paternity suit. I proved everything I said and the day she was to go to court she moves back to the other state from the first suit. Third paternity suit.
After 8 years of hell I finally won in court. I have all my proof and I will probably have to make sure my heirs keep it until they are dead to make sure the f**king states don’t try it again.
So yes, I feel for the guy.
Nobody seems to be lambasting the deadbeat fathers (and it appears no one thus far believes such a thing exists). Someone has to be adjudicated the father and there are some unlucky men just like there are unlucky women who have fathers bail on them. Unbelievable as it may seem to some responding to this post, there are men who continue to pay child support even when they know they aren’t the father.
Things aren’t as bad as either side would have it made out to be.
As someone said in the item about CCTV cameras, if the state has the power, the state will misuse the power. Sometimes it feels like half the stories here are about the misuse of power by authorities. From street thugs with badges (Atlanta cop who knocked down a Brit professor and arrested him for “assault” after the professor asked to see his badge of authority) to hypocritical right-wing politicians and preachers posturing about morality, to the institutionalized abuse of trust in this story – if there is a way to misuse power, the “authorities” will find it.
Then the usual idiots will wring their hands over the public’s lack of respect for the law.
I hereby lambast deadbeat fathers. Not the subject of this thread, but they certainly deserve lambasting!!!
5–I can top you. Had a friend. He got divorced. AFTER the divorce, the woman adopts a kid. She claims child support. Luckily, the court threw her case out. Kid never got picked up in Guatamala.
HEY=======Howcome nobody ever lambasts deadbeat mothers???? I blame my mother everyday for every bad thing I do. She’s getting tired of hearing it.
This does not surprise me. It’s all part of the feminist movement of the last 30 years.
Women get pregnant through no fault or action of their own. All men are rapists. Women should be able to just point their finger at any random guy and force him to support her for the rest of her life (or at least 18 years).
@qsabe
You said : “State employees have to justify their jobs.”
That’s not really true for people who work for the government, and it’s definitely not true for judges. They really are not accountable to the public at all (in this case, obviously a bad thing). Even when they have to stand for election, they usually are not challenged by someone coming from outside the system who can do the right thing.
To make this man’s ( Francisco Rodriguez ) situation even worse, the government gets him twice on this ruling….since he does not live with the child or have custody, there is no child tax deduction. This deduction can knock $2,000–$4,000 per year off your taxes for each child depending on the circumstance
For a working class guy like him, this can be not merely an injustice, but financially devastating…Even if he were the father, this tax treatment could also send him into a financial tailspin….This in fact is true in every case of men who pay child support….I know from first hand experience. There is no mystery why millions of working class & middle class men end up as ‘DeadBeat Dads’
Again, Florida is loaded with bitter old people whose only pleasure in life is ruining the lives of others.
#6 – Unbelievable as it may seem to some responding to this post, there are men who continue to pay child support even when they know they aren’t the father.
That’s their problem, not his… He doesn’t owe anything. He should not have to pay.
Further, most states need to reform their draconian child support laws that do more to create deadbeats than to curtail them. Yea… I feel for the mothers and the children… That’s why we have social safety nets. But ruining men is not the answer to this societal problem.
This is happening a lot. I live in Upstate NY and has happened to a neighbor/friend of mine.
With this guy it was an illegal alien working at the farm he owned who got his wife pregnant. The divorce followed along with the child, and when his ex-wife applied for the child to have New York State Health benefits they came after her ex-husband.
DNA test were done to prove that it wasn’t my neighbors child, but the state still pursued the case stating that the real father was a not a citizen of the US, and that he was going to be held liable because the child was conceived while he was married to his Wife, and it was done so in his home.
It’s not the child’s fault that this happened, and it is not fair to take the child’s State Provided health benefits away, just because the state doesn’t want to pursue the case against the real father!
This is all part of a bigger problem with the inequality of women in court. They’re not equal, because people want to feel good about themselves they are made ‘more than equal’.
This seems to have led to the current system of women being considered some sort of saints while giving them full license to steal from men.
If a woman gets pregnant she has full choice whether to have the baby or have an abortion. The guy has no say. It’s her body, is the reason given. If she goes for the abortion the guy can’t force her to have the baby. Conversely, if she decides to have the baby the guy can’t force her to have an abortion. In both cases it’s typically considered in poor taste for the guy to even suggest what he wants. Who is he, afterall, to make that kind of life changing call for the woman?
Yet, if she has the baby she has full reign on going after the guy for child support. She calls the shots but doesn’t have any accountability.
There was a recent lawsuit up in Michigan (I think it was Michigan) about this. The guy suing said, “How come I’m held responsible but have no say either way?” He was shot down.
Men get into the child support situation by any number of methods. If it’s by divorce they have their kids stripped from them because the mother is automatically considered the better parent (typical).
During divorce women scream loudly how they’re owed 50% of the assets because it was a partnership. The get really quiet when there’s any kind of liability.
The kids are a liability. They scream that the man owes them child support of (for example) $1000/month! Anything less than that and the kid will starve! They’re never held up to “Well, where’s your $1000/month?”. No accountability. Often, if pushed, people will say, “Well, you can’t expect a woman to pay that kind of cash for a child – it should be done one a percentage of income basis if anything.” Where was that ‘percentage of income’ basis during the divorce when they were talking about the assets?
Some women go so far as to keep their kids from the kid’s father. If the father takes them to court enough times he may win a visit every 6 months or so. The bottom line, though, is that the mother will never be held accountable. She won’t pay fines, lose custody, pay retribution, or see any jail time. The worst she’ll get is a stern talking-to by the judge. Nothing else.
Taxes: Women get their 20% (off gross – depends on the state, though) right off the top – Tax free. It’s for the child, afterall. When it comes to claiming the children (deductions) on taxes, they get that, too.It was recently changed from ~2004, I think from showing that you’re the primary financial provider to just custodial parent – no need to show anything. Again, no accountability.
If the father loses his jobs he’s in arrears for child support. He may have to pay interest on what he owes. He may go to jail. If the mother loses her job no one condemns her of ‘not doing her part’. No risk of jail time for her. Nope – no accountability.
If the kid stays with the father across the summer the child support is still expected to go to the mother.
There was another case not too var back where a woman fraudulantly got inseminated after a divorce and then get awarded child support. She did it just to get back at her ex.
To me, the problem here is that a price is put on the child’s head. Because of that the child becomes a financial extortion tool by women and no one should dare question them.
I really don’t think that, if both parent’s are equal (no nut-cases) money should change hands at all. Maybe in extreme cases involving emergency medical attention but why can’t each parent just take care of their kid when their kid is on their own turf?
Why is it that people will happily tell the father to “step up the the plate” and get a 2nd or 3rd job if that’s what it takes to pay his ex but they’d never expect the mother to do the same if she weren’t getting paid by her ex?
Why is it, also, that women will frequently quip off, “I’d do anything for my kids,” but when it gets right down to it, that just means they’d steal more from their ex’s if they could?
Again, referring back to previous posts of mine, the good-feeling, non-thinking courts/lawyers have completely screwed this stuff up.
This is all part of a bigger problem with the inequality of women in court. They’re not equal, because people want to feel good about themselves they are made ‘more than equal’.
This seems to have led to the current system of women being considered some sort of saints while giving them full license to steal from men.
If a woman gets pregnant she has full choice whether to have the baby or have an abortion. The guy has no say. It’s her body, is the reason given. If she goes for the abortion the guy can’t force her to have the baby. Conversely, if she decides to have the baby the guy can’t force her to have an abortion. In both cases it’s typically considered in poor taste for the guy to even suggest what he wants. Who is he, afterall, to make that kind of life changing call for the woman?
Yet, if she has the baby she has full reign on going after the guy for child support. She calls the shots but doesn’t have any accountability.
There was a recent lawsuit up in Michigan (I think it was Michigan) about this. The guy suing said, “How come I’m held responsible but have no say either way?” He was shot down.
Men get into the child support situation by any number of methods. If it’s by divorce they have their kids stripped from them because the mother is automatically considered the better parent (typical).
During divorce women scream loudly how they’re owed 50% of the assets because it was a partnership. The get really quiet when there’s any kind of liability. They may even ask for and be awarded court costs. If the guy does the same he’ll be laughed at.
The kids are a liability. They scream that the man owes them child support of (for example) $1000/month! Anything less than that and the kid will starve! They’re never held up to “Well, where’s your $1000/month?”. No accountability. Often, if pushed, people will say, “Well, you can’t expect a woman to pay that kind of cash for a child – it should be done one a percentage of income basis if anything.” Where was that ‘percentage of income’ basis during the divorce when they were talking about the assets?
Some women go so far as to keep their kids from the kid’s father. If the father takes them to court enough times he may win a visit every 6 months or so. The bottom line, though, is that the mother will never be held accountable. She won’t pay fines, lose custody, pay retribution, or see any jail time. The worst she’ll get is a stern talking-to by the judge. Nothing else.
Taxes: Women get their 20% (off gross – depends on the state, though) right off the top – Tax free. It’s for the child, afterall. When it comes to claiming the children (deductions) on taxes, they get that, too.It was recently changed from ~2004, I think from showing that you’re the primary financial provider to just custodial parent – no need to show anything. Again, no accountability.
If the father loses his jobs he’s in arrears for child support. He may have to pay interest on what he owes. He may go to jail. If the mother loses her job no one condemns her of ‘not doing her part’. No risk of jail time for her. Nope – no accountability.
If the kid stays with the father across the summer the child support is still expected to go to the mother.
There was another case not too var back where a woman fraudulantly got inseminated after a divorce and then get awarded child support. She did it just to get back at her ex.
To me, the problem here is that a price is put on the child’s head. Because of that the child becomes a financial extortion tool by women and no one should dare question them.
I really don’t think that, if both parent’s are equal (no nut-cases) money should change hands at all. Maybe in extreme cases involving emergency medical attention but why can’t each parent just take care of their kid when their kid is on their own turf?
Why is it that people will happily tell the father to “step up the the plate” and get a 2nd or 3rd job if that’s what it takes to pay his ex but they’d never expect the mother to do the same if she weren’t getting paid by her ex?
Why is it, also, that women will frequently quip off, “I’d do anything for my kids,” but when it gets right down to it, that just means they’d steal more from their ex’s if they could?
If the financial stability of the child is so important, why not just give the child to the highest wage earner, skip child support, and be done with it?
Again, referring back to previous posts of mine, the good-feeling, non-thinking courts/lawyers have completely screwed this stuff up.
Ultimately, will all of this, I get annoyed at just how far women will go to hose men over and how the court and society never questions them. I also get annoyed how guys always seem to have to take it on the chin on these things and then get blasted for not doing more.
In this particular case, even if the guy somehow wins eventually, nothing will happen to the woman who brought the suit.
These stats. are from a woman blogger.
CHILD CUSTODY: Women receive custody of 92% of the
children of divorce and illegitimacy, and men only 4%.
[Department of Health & Human Services]
FEDERAL TAXES: Even though men pay 115% of federal
income taxes women constitute 11% more of the voters.
JURY BIAS: Women are acquitted of spousal murder
at a rate 9 times that of men [Bureau Justice
Statistics — 1.4% of men vs 12.9% of women]
COURT BIAS: Men are sentenced 2.8 times longer
than women for spousal murder [Bureau Justice
Statistics — men at 17 years vs women at 6 years]
JUSTICE SYSTEM BIAS: Even though the amount of the
average “child support payment” due from women is half
the amount due from men, and even though women are
twice as likely as men to default on those payments,
fathers are 97% of “child support” collections
prosecutions [Census Bureau]
WELFARE: Even though men are the recipients of
less than 10% of all welfare disbursements, men are
required to refund welfare payments made to women.
LEGAL SYSTEM BIAS: 96% of physical altercations
resulting in injury to a spouse occurs AFTER the date
of separation. [Read: spousal abuse laws that pretend
that husbands are dangerous discriminate against
husbands when we know that only a very small percent
of domestic violence is associated with them].
[Chadwick and Heaton, “Statistical Handbook of the
American Family”]
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Even though study after study
shows that women are the majority of the initiators of
domestic violence, and 58% of the above mentioned
physical altercations are initiated by the female,
Congress passed the obviously anti-male VAWA and VAWA
II.which are known would make the problem far worse.
[Read: despite the fact we discriminate against
husbands in protective orders, women still cause more
than half of domestic altercations because they know
they can get away with it].
CHILD VIOLENCE: Even though mothers commit 55% of
child murders and biological fathers commit 6%, even
though NIS-3 shows that Mother-only households are 3
times more fatal to children than Father-only
households, children are systematically removed from
the natural fathers who are their most effective
protectors and men are imprisoned at rate 20 times
that of women.
INCARCERATION: Even though feminists brag that 1.4
million American brides commit adultery, and even
though women file more than 90,000 false allegations
of rape, every year, only 99,000 of the 1.8 million
Americans behind bars are women.
DEATH PENALTY: Almost all Death Row inmates are
men. No women who has killed a man has been executed
since 1954.
Anyone who thinks that men get a fair deal in the legal system ought to have their head examined. Discrimination against men in our legal system is the most pervasive form of discrimination in our society today.
I should also point out that the supposedly “pro-family” women initially file for divorce 70% of the time.
In the 60s, women fought for equal rights but what that has really amounted to is entitlement, i.e. taking men’s money. For every multimillionaire/billionaire like Meg Whitman, there are dozens of women who have gotten rich through lawsuits.
It has gotten so bad that I wouldn’t get married today even if I found the perfect woman. Marriage is between you, your spouse, and the state, and we now know what the state is capable of.
sounds like a punctuallity issue.
18 – KVolk, Do you mean “His fault because he missed the deadline”?
No, it does not work that way. The notification and warning about the deadline can go to any address at all. The man does not have to receive it, and proving that the woman gave the state the wrong address for him on purpose does not cut him any slack.
He is screwed.
17—Nice read. Just saw that movie about Eileen Wormous–she got executed a few years ago for killing johns==or is that statistic about women spouses killing male spouses??
I am guessing to surmise that most married men killed by their spouses pretty much deserve it? ((I said “most”)). But the law being what it is…….
Something just hit me. It’s easier to get out of a murder charge than to get out of paying child support/alimony/etc. What’s going to happen when that sinks in?
If the State knows he is not the father and doesn’t care, then why don’t they go after some rich guy and get the money from someone that can affford it? It’s a win-win situation for the State. They get the money for the mother and the child gets a rich father. Just declare any rich man the father and it’s over.
Interesting comments.
But I guess we cannot expect the ladies to agree with the glaring truth…….Men are not getting a fair deal in child support isues.
Women were the driving force, that greated this situation of unfairness.
No one wants to give up a good thing.
In every little argument. No one ever considers the effects all this shit leaves on kids. Yes i am a father who has no right to see my children apparently, even though i love them dearly. An excuse would be i only want to see them because i don’t want to pay child support. Well if the greedy bitch wants all my money then she can have it if i can see my children for half of the time. Yes you heard right half of the time because unlike liars an pathetic women being vindictive towards the fathers i am thinking of my children. They deserve to see both parents no matter what each parent thinks or says about each other. I work with children and have no criminal history and have to have checks every year so i can work with kids so any abuse line doesn’t gel with me either. At the moment i miss my children so much at not my fault not there fault but at the fault of a vindictive mother who mind you cheated on me (statistics are real) and because i cant be in love with her like i was because of that i lose out and the kids lose out. The other fault is the law courts. If i want to see my children that is up to me. It isn’t up to anyone else and because i want to see my children i should be commended for that not ridiculed as a deadbeat dad or someone trying to evade support because like i said take the fucking lot i don’t care. I just want to se my girls and each and every day someone somewhere denies me of that is killing my heart and treating my girls with no respect. It is abusing them to no end and if people don’t stop the shit that keeps going around in circles and just start straight away from half half then go from there with each case then nothing is going to get better. It will only divide the sexes and eventually cause the demise of the earth. I refuse to have anymore children even though i would love them because i have been scammed and and the children i thought could have a wonderful life will now suffer also. The only one who doesn’t suffer is the mother. EVEN IF I MET THE GREATEST CHICK I WOULDN’T HAVE KIDS BECAUSE I HAVE FOUND IF SOMETHING IS IN YOUR FAVOUR YOU WILL USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE NO MATTER WHO SUFFERS WHICH IN ALL THESE CASES ARE THE CHILDREN. YES I AM SUFFERING BUT I AM IN THE RANGE OF 70% FATHERS. All children in every case suffer. At the best interests of the children Is also a lie to cover up the real truth and is a way of masking greedy law people who if they can cause greif so that a law suit will continue as long as possible so it make their pockets fatter. I am on the verge of suicide because i have an ache in my heart for my children. On the other hand i also want ot kill that bitch for what she is doing but then i would be a deadbeat who battered his wife. In real though i am a loving person who would do anything for my loved ones, i have a great little business i started frm scratch by myself and have no criminal records so i can work in my industry. In all this i would still like my children to see their mother half and half not like she is doing and using the discriminative law to her advantage.
I forgot to mention as well before all you idiots condemn me for wanting to die or kill. I am only feeling this way because i am fighting a losing battle to see my children. I haven’t even gone to court yet or anything because i know i will lose for no apparent reasoning and i will be forced to pay way to much money for everything which in turn will ruin my business that in the end could be left to my children. Depriving them once again which no doubt will be at my fault and they will be told that. So much for not making out one parent to be the bad parent. I refuse to goto court because in my judgement the law is biased and isn’t serving me or my children rightly. Why should i support that. I will only lose out anyway. Someone said that we should keep fighting but look at it like this. All the fighting cause stress to the kids and myself. By the time the fighting has ended the kids have grown older. In other words i was forced to miss out on numerous years of their life. All this when by rights half and half should be implemented until the fighting has ended. Who knows the parents may end up seeing the half thing does really work. After losing many years with my children and losing thousands of dollars that could have been better spent on my children, I them am made out to be the bad parent to my children and they begin to hate me when in the beginning they loved me dearly as their dad. They hurt for me but are finally brainwashed to hate me. After all the fighting and all the money spent on fighting i lose out even more when i do not have a daughter anymore because she blames me for not being there. In reality i wanted to be there i fought to be there but her mother was the one who stopped that. It begins with the mothers and ends with the mothers. If any woman had a moral to their children they wouldn’t worry about courts and greedy manipulative lawyers who put words in their heads. Example being you had better do this or you haven’t a leg to stand on later down the track. That is bullshit women will always have more of a leg then the man. Just piss the law of and make your own arrangements for the kids. Half and Half, Half and Half, Half and Half, Half and Half Half And Half, Half And Half
If we had mandatory joint custody, DNA tests at birth, and a shared checking account for child support like this one (http://mediate.com/articles/if_they_can_do_parenting_plans.cfm) to eliminate the profit motive in child support cases, the divorce industry would quickly evaporate.