When you and your ex split up in Florida, one of you may be ordered to pay child support to the other. For instance, you could get custody, meaning your spouse will likely have to pay support to you to help you raise the children. This is calculated based on many factors, including available assets and income at the time of the divorce.
What if your spouse gets more money down the line, perhaps from an inheritance? Can that change the amount that is paid? There are two ways that the money can impact the situation.
First of all, there is a chance that the court could be asked to recalculate how much is owed. This isn’t always done, but it can be if it seems the payment isn’t fair. For instance, if your spouse just barely made it from one paycheck to the next and now he or she inherited millions, alterations may be needed.
Now, perhaps the problem is that your spouse hasn’t been paying support. You’re trying to collect on the money that is due to you, but it’s been difficult. One option here is to have a lien put on the inheritance money. In this fashion, you can claim as much of that money as is needed to get things even again, paying off the debt that is essentially owed to you.
For either of these things to work, you will need an official court order. That’s why it’s so important to know all of your legal options, even long after the initial court case is over, just in case situations change.
Source: The Nest, “Can Proceeds From an Inheritance Be Intercepted for Back Child Support Owed?,” Kay Bosworth, accessed Nov. 05, 2015