DadsDivorce.com provides essential information and resources about divorce, alimony, child support and child custody to men and fathers at any stage of divorce.

Question:

I have a twenty year old daughter who is supposed to have been attending college full time. I just found out through her transcript that she has been withdrawing from one class each of the last 3 semesters. Now she took the spring 2009 semester off. Further, she wants to take a cosmetology course while she is working full time.  I have been informed by the director of the course that it is an adult night class and considered to be part time school.

My question is:  Am I still liable to provide full child support? She lives at home with her mother, and her mother is claiming she should not be emancipated because she pays for her car insurance.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Jennifer Levitz titled: The New Art Of Alimony.  The article gives some very scary situations in which, years after a divorce is finalized, one partner comes back seeking maintenance or alimony simply because they have fallen on hard times. In some of these cases the ex-partner who is ordered to pay is now unable to retire or their new spouse must find work in order to pay the ex. 

We spoke to Frank Murphy, J.D. of Cordell & Cordell, P.C., to find out about alimony and maintenance as seen in the state of Missouri where he practices.

Question:

My spouse is spending her money aggressively to eliminate any cash that she may have to split in our divorce. What can I do to mitigate my obligation to pay half of her debt?

She has served me with a Notice of Dissolution of Marriage, but nothing has been filed yet. I believe she is doing this as a calculated move on her part, re-enforced by her attorney.

DadsDivorce.com editor, Rick Ortiz, discusses how Cordell & Cordell, P.C. has changed the way men are served in divorce with attorney, Dan Cuneo.