Will Child Support Automatically Stop at 18?
According to
Georgia law, Child Support payments end when the child for whom support is
being paid turns 18 years of age or graduates from high school/secondary
school, which ever event occurs later. Thus, if a child turns 18 before
graduating high school, Child Support would end when the child graduates. If
the child turns 18 after graduation, Child Support would end when the child
turns 18. However, a Child Support obligation will not continue after the child
reaches age 20, even if the child has not graduated from school.
Can You Stop Paying Child Support?
Willfully failing
to comply with a Court Order can leave someone punishable for contempt of court.
In order to be guilty of contempt, there must be a current Court Order in place
and the person must willfully fail to comply.
An individual found
in contempt of a Child Support Order may be punished by revocation of a
driver's license, professional license, and/or business license; having their wages
garnished to satisfy the Child Support debt; and/or, in extreme cases, the
individual failing to pay Child Support may be subject to jail time.
Nevertheless, there
are a few conditions which may end a Child Support obligation early, before the
law normally requires Child Support to end. An individual's legal obligation to
pay Child Support will end if: the child gets married, the child becomes
legally emancipated or self-supporting through a Court Order, the child dies,
the parent obligated to pay support dies, or through a Court Ordered
Modification of Child Support or Modification of Child Custody.
How to Reduce Child Support in Georgia
As time passes,
parents' income may change, children grow, and the child's needs may change. A
previous Child Support Order may no longer be appropriate several years down
the road.
Parents' agreement
to modify Child Support outside of Court may not be legally appropriate. Either
parent may file a petition for Child Support Modification, so long as there has
been a change in the income or financial status of either former spouse or in
the needs of the minor child(ren). However, Georgia law does require that a
parent may not file a petition for Modification of Child Support within a two
year period from the date of a Final Order on a previous Modification action
filed by the same parent.
Written by: Rebekah
Ann James