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Football player accused of owing substantial back child support

On Behalf of | Dec 19, 2012 | Child Support

Issues with child support between divorced or separated parents can easily become complicated, but that’s especially true when the parents live in separate states.

A professional football player has been taken to court by a Houston, Texas, woman who claims that he has failed to pay her thousands of dollars in back child support. The father lives in another state, but his attorney has said the player is doing everything he’s required to do according to Texas child support laws.

The mother had previously received a court order mandating that the athlete, a wideout for the Carolina Panthers, pay her $4,000 a month to support their son, who is almost 2 years old and lives with her. The father’s attorney claims that another judge later reduced the child support obligation to $1,500 a month, and that amount represents the most that can be awarded in Texas as monthly child support for one child.

The mother’s attorney retorts that the modification order was never actually signed by a judge and that an amount of $4,000 a month is both legal and justified in this case on the basis of the child’s health issues, which are not being publicly disclosed.

The mother is 29 years old and the proprietor of a local ultrasound clinic that does prenatal testing. She claims that the football player is currently $23,000 in arrears on his child support obligations, based on the $4,000-a-month order. He contends that he has been properly paying the reduced $1,500. Who is right must now be sorted out in a court hearing at which both parents will argue their case. The football player’s current annual salary is $540,000, and his attorney says the Panthers are under no obligation to follow any out-of-state orders to withhold his wages to pay extra support.

Source: The Charlotte Observer, “Houston woman: Panther owes thousands in child support,” Joseph Person, Dec. 12, 2012

  • Our firm handles situations similar to the one described in this post. To learn more about our practice, please visit our Dallas child custody page.

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