A Florida man was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison after a jury found that he had not made a single child support payment since his divorce was finalized in 2004.

John C. Carlson of Venice, Florida was accused of failing to pay child support in Maine. Because the case involved multiple states--Carlson lives in Florida, but his ex-wife and daughter live in Maine--Carlson was prosecuted in federal court under the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998. The case was also heard in federal court because the child support debt exceeded $10,000 and accrued over more than two years.

In addition to spending in a year in prison, Carlson was also ordered to pay $44,000 in back child support that he never paid to his ex-wife. Carlson's attorney is planning to appeal the sentence, and argued that the original divorce decree was unreasonable. In 2004, a judge in Maine ordered Carlson to pay $132 a week in child support and $11,682 in back child support from when the divorce petition was initially filed in 2001. Carlson was accused of never making a payment.

Furthermore, it is believed he took steps to  hide his assets, and it is reported that at the time he and his ex-wife filed for divorce in 2001, he earned $57,000 a year as an engineer and had more than $600,000 worth of assets, which included real estate, vehicles, personal property, and retirement accounts. However, his attorney argues that he now has no assets, no income, and is suffering from "significant health problems that keep him from working as an engineer." He is now employed at a discount department store where he earns minimum wage and cares full-time for his elderly mother.

Experienced Child Support Attorneys Serving Jacksonville

If you have been ordered to pay child support, it is extremely important that you make every possible effort to make your child support payments. Failure to pay child support can result in fines and incarceration, and you will likely be ordered to make retroactive payments for all the child support you haven't paid.

If you are falling behind on your obligations due to financial hardship, do not simply ignore your responsibilities and allow child support debt to accumulate. Instead, contact a Jacksonville child support lawyer at Ellerin Hutchinson. We can help you address your situation and ask the court to modify your payments so they are more affordable. To learn more about our services, contact Ellerin Hutchinson today at (904) 638-3134 to arrange a consultation.

As the economy forces more companies to lay off employees and more employees are losing their jobs, those people who have been ordered to pay child support are having trouble making their payments. These are not people who are lazy or trying to shirk their responsibilities, but rather cannot afford to make their payments because they are not receiving any or enough income. Ask any child support agency in any county and they’ll likely tell you they’ve seen a significant increase in requests to get child support payments lowered.

The case of Michael Dierolf sheds light on this growing problem.

Dierolf was diagnosed with cancer last year. After undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, Dierolf tried to hold on to his job as a forklift operator but was laid off in December. Since then he has been unable to make his $140-a-week payments for his two sons. Dierolf says he’s been trying his hardest get a job and collect unemployment, but so far has had no luck.

Not one to avoid his responsibilities, Dierolf met with a representative at his local child support agency to get his payments lowered and set up a repayment plan. He says as soon as he gets a job he plans to pay back the $3,000 he owes. Fortunately the representative was understanding of Dierolf’s situation, and is giving him another month or so to try and find a job.

When a parent fails to make child support payments the state of Florida will withhold their tax return and use it to pay back any past-due payments. While this policy seems far enough it becomes a problem when a person is wrongly identified as a child’s father. 

This happened to 22-year-old Rusty Cole, a National Guardsman from Port Orange. The state withheld his tax return because they had records indicating Cole was the father of a child born in 1995. The only problem is Cole has never met the mother and was seven years old at the time the child was born, basically making it impossible for him to be the father.

Dependent on that money and desperate to receive it, Cole continuously made efforts to contact the department of revenue but to no avail. Progress was finally made when Cole wrote an e-mail to Governor Charlie Crist explaining the mix-up. Cole finally received an apology from the department with the promise that his return would be processed right away.

Cole’s not getting his hopes up yet. He said he will not feel any relief until his tax return is safely in his hands and he can say for certain that this will never happen again. He also wants the ordeal taken completely off his record.

Have you been wrongfully accused of owing child support? If so, an experienced  Jacksonville family law attorney at Ellerin Hutchinson can help. To arrange a consultation to discuss your case, please contact the office today by calling (904) 866-4489 or by filling out an online case evaluation.

A Florida man was sentenced to two years in federal prison for willful failure to pay child support.  In addition to the two-year prison sentence, Robert George Cahill was also ordered to pay $72,732 in past-due child support for his daughter, now 17, and his son, now 13.

Cahill, 41, was ordered to pay child support in April 1997 by a Lee County state court judge.  Even though Cahill was aware of his child support obligations and was often employed, he only made child support payments occasionally.

According to an article on Tampa Bay Online, authorities were able to involuntary take payments by arresting him and then requiring him to pay cash bond in order to be released.  That money went towards his child support arrears.  Cahill also had his tax refund seized and had to pay $300 to avoid getting his driver’s license suspended.

Back in 2007, Cahill told federal agents that he tried to obtain work that paid him under the table to avoid having child support garnished from his wages. 

Once released from prison, Cahill must serve one year of probation as ordered by U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew.