Interstate child support cases can be tough and even more so when the various state departments of public aid are involved. Often what makes these doubley tough is that lawyers haven't been involved too much and the clients may be confused about procedures.

I have a tough one right now where my client was getting charged for child support in IL continuously for the entire time that the child lived with the mother. IL support was never stopped. Meanwhile, the mother moves to MN and applies for public aid up there. So MN support starts to run against the father, our client. Recently, custody of the son gets changed to our client. Now the problem is that both IL and MN are trying to collect on arrearages for overlapping times. Adding to the frustration is that for one of the periods MN is trying to collect, the child had actually been with the father. We may be able to wipe that period out by providing MN w/ proof the child's school records in another state.

Pretty interesting situation though. It sure seems like it's ripe for abuse by parents who falsely claim that they're entitled to child support and then the state goes after the other parent (like this case).

A FL court ruled that a woman's sex change did not require a modification of alimony payments from her (his) former husband...here's a link. Haven't seen one of these in IL but the result seems right. It's still the same person, right?

Here was a piece from the Sun-Times jailing an obligor dad for over $218,000 in back child support.

Here's one way to "divide" marital property from Reuters...

BERLIN - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chain sawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.

Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-story summer house — which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide — before chain sawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

I've had a couple of nasty cases I've been involved with lately sort of similar to the above. I think my mind has been changed a bit from thinking that parties in a divorce generally put their self-interest above all else. Often I see that hurting the opposing party comes even before one's self-interest.

Dealt with an interesting situation recently that came out well for our client...the issue is when does a child become emancipated and thus the child support obligation stops.

My case dealt with a child who had just turned 18 and it was a question of whether or not he was still attending school. We filed a petition to terminate support when the child turned 18 because he'd dropped out of school but the mother kept coming into court trying to show that the child was still in school. Eventually we subpoenaed a GED provider and they said the kid was out of the program so we got support stopped effective at the child's 18th birthday.

Remember when child support stops...I think there are a lot of misperceptions out there. It stops at one of four possible times:

A) Child turns 18. This was my case above. If you have a child NOT attending high school it stops when he/she turns 18.

B) Child graduates high school. This is likely the most popular option. Most kids graduate high school during their 18th year; support should terminate at the same time the child graduates high school.

C) Child turns 19. If a child is still in school when he/she turns 19, support should time at the 19th birthday.

D) Child is emancipated. This is rare but I do hear it come up every so often. This situation is when a child essentially would be self-sustaining or married prior to his/her 18th birthday. Or perhaps he/she joined the military.

Saw this nugget in the Tribune recently, Single Parent Properties. Essentially it's a mortgage brokerage that focuses on helping single parents and recent divorcees.

The bigger issue I think is that people don't change their lifestyles enough post-divorce. In many situations, the parties' income has just been cut in half and yet people often think they can live in the same home and neighborhood, ect. And that's leaving aside the risk that the obligor/payer parent (child support, ect.) doesn't pay support regularly...then it's even worse.

Taking a good hard look at your financial life immediately upon a divorce and possibly sitting down with a financial advisor is time well spent.