Questions About Child Support

Maine - because that is where she was born. Good Luck - I hope you have his SSN!!! If you go thru NY, it may be a much longer wait for everything.

File where you are. The county you reside in will work with the department in the county/state your ex lives in.

Best wishes.

You file in the state you live in and NY will contact ME.

I live in NY you have to file where your daughter is living. NYS has a Family Court division. You go and fill out a pettition for support. They will mail you back a court date. Father will be summonsed. He has to show or you win by default. If he gets more then $5000 behind you can have his wages garnished. :)

I had to apply through the state out here in Il. while her "father" lived in California when my daughter was born. It's alot harder when it's an interstate child support case and I had to do a bunch of running around and I still haven't seen a penny and it's been over 3years and I can never get a case worker on the phone. I would say if you have the money use a private lawyer. If not be prepared to do alot of paperwork and have alot of appointments. I'm not sure about NY bout out here you can start the process on line. Maybe give that a try 1st. Good luck.

Assuming that you were never married and there is no divorce, support or custody papers filed in any court, then A.G. is correct. Go to your local child support enforcement agency (not sure of the exact title in NY, it varies from state to state) and ask for services.

They will take your information, open a case file and the end result will be that NY sends a case to ME, then ME will take him into a local court there. That court will issue an order that will require him to pay support and the $ will be sent (via court depository system) to you.

Where your daughter was born is irrelevant.

Added: Momandsmom G is also correct that he could file for visitation. But not through the same case file. He would have to hire an attorney (or come himself in person representing himself) in NY to file a case in NY. State to State child support enforcement does not necessarily address issues of custody or visitation. They must be addressed by the court with jurisdiction over the CHILD. If you have been living in NY for 6 months or longer, then that would be NY.

I don't know check with your states child support enforcement division but really think about it he could file for custody or visitation to retaliate or get back at you for wanting support is that really worth the money.

Go to your State Attorney Generals Website and search child support enforcement. The forms are all online. They will assign you to the closest office to you.

If there is nothing arranged before now in any court, then you would file in NY but you will need a valid address for him. Understand that child support will open up the issue of visitation and custody. He will be advised to pursue visitation and custody isn't automatically determined by who the child is living with.

Just some food for thought for you. I hope it all works out for your daughters best interest.

If nothing has been filed to date, you should be fine to file where you are but you can/should verify that w/ your local Div. of Child Support office as states do vary.

file in your state and let the law contact him...be careful with that, a lot of dad's will press for visitation rights if they are paying for the kiddo....i'd talk to an attorney and ask if he would have a fight for visitation or not. then consider that too, it's a possibility

Call your county courthouse and ask the court clerk. They call the county courthouse where he is and ask them, each state may have different laws. That way you can compare the notes from each court clerk.