You quit your job to find better work. You didn’t get the job you expected to land and now you’re asking the court to reduce your child support obligations. You no longer bring home anything close to your former salary. Your former spouse cries foul. After all, you lost your job as a result of your own actions. Who’s right?
The Oklahoma Supreme Court decision handed down a decision earlier this month that suggests you may be qualified for a child-support modification even if you voluntarily left your job. A father in the Seminole, Okla. case who voluntarily left his job as a school principal qualifies for possible modification of child support and alimony orders based on his reduced income, the court concluded. Justices remanded the case to the trial court for reconsideration of his support obligations.
The court’s reasoning hinged on whether the father left his job to avoid paying child support or if he quit for some unrelated reason. The father testified at trial that he left his job in a resign-or-get-fired scenario related to alleged misconduct on his part.
Rather than hit the job market with a recent firing on his resume, the father opted to resign. After sending out 53 job applications and 35 resumes, he’d still not found work. He filed for modification of his child-support obligations. After a trial, the district court denied his motion. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the district court judgment, but the state’s high court this month reversed the appellate opinion.
Four times in the court’s 2600-word October opinion, justices asserted the father had not resigned his job to avoid paying child support. “We must look at all the circumstances to determine whether a self-inflicted or voluntary reduction in income was done in bad faith in order to avoid the obligor’s support obligations,” Justice James Edmonson wrote for the majority.
Neither the father’s not-entirely-voluntary resignation nor the alleged conduct that prompted his employer’s ultimatum was motivated by an effort to avoid parental duties, the court found. Seven justices concurred on the opinion. Chief Justice Steven Taylor and Justice James Winchester dissented.
The majority cited Oklahoma statutes along with cases in Oklahoma, Michigan, Iowa, West Virginia, Kansas, Colorado and Idaho where parents had left or refused jobs for reasons other than to avoid child support obligations. Oklahoma law states that child support orders may be modified “upon a material change in circumstances.”
The court relied on the “clean hands” doctrine to examine whether the father had committed “inequitable conduct in the matter in which he seeks relief.” The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals ruled in a 1999 case (DHS v Baggett) that, despite a imprisoned father’s criminal conduct, he was entitled under state law to seek a child-support modification. The man didn’t get himself thrown in jail as a way to avoid paying child support so his hands were clean in that regard when he asked for modification of his support obligations.
In a 1997 case, an Oklahoma mother left her job to home school her children. Even though she voluntarily left her better paying job, her previously higher level of income couldn’t be used as a basis for reducing the father’s support obligation after he applied for a modification of support based on her change in circumstances, the appeals court ruled.
In other states, courts have concluded parents who refused work that would have required them to travel out of state did not voluntarily reduce their income to avoid paying child support. Nor did parents who lost their jobs when they failed drug tests deliberately leave their jobs to avoid child support obligations. The Oklahoma justices cited three such cases – in Colorado, Kansas and Idaho – where courts found that job loss was not motivated by a desire to shed parental responsibilities.
If you are a parent paying or receiving child support and you think the amount may be unfair, contact an Oklahoma family law attorney today. As we see in the Seminole case, even when lower courts initially rule otherwise, Oklahoma law allows parents whose circumstances have substantially changed to seek a modification of child support. I recently argued a case where a parent left a job to finish out their education, which could potentially mean more income for the family. The court agreed that my client qualified for a child support modification.
For ainitial confidential consultation about child support modifications, alimony orders or any family law matter, contact me, Oklmulgee family law attorney Shannon M. Walcher at (918) 756-9600. Alternately, you may send me a question using the “Ask the Attorney” feature at the top of this page.
Read the full text of the Oklahoma Supreme Court opinion here.
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