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Getting Child Support Payments in a Florida Estate

Probate Information • Jul 31, 2024
post about Getting Child Support Payments in a Florida Estate

Are you a former spouse who is owed back child support —- and your ex-spouse just died? Move fast and file the correct papers in a probate. Get a Statement of Claim on the books properly and ASAP. You just may be able to get unpaid child support payments plus interest — even decades later.

Child Support Payments = Estate Claim

Unlike great Bordeaux, your claim for unpaid child support does NOT get better with age.

If you are divorced and are owed unpaid child support payments and your ex spouse just died, you need to file a Statement of Claim in the probate proceeding right away. Why? Because you are a creditor of the late (now deceased) spouse’s estate. That’s right: you need to “sue” your ex-spouse’s estate. And creditors get paid before a beneficiary sees a dime.

Don’t wait. A lot of claimants make the mistake of expecting someone else to open probate. And sometimes that just doesn’t happen. So, don’t sit on your rights ! To read more how to open probate, click here.

If there is no probate open, you need to start one. Open it yourself. To read more about creditor’s rights, you can read the Florida Probate Code.

There are very short time frames to exercise your rights as a creditor. You may only have 3 months, maybe less, and definitely no more than 2 years after the date of death of your ex spouse. Check out this link for important Florida Probate Statutes on filing a claim.

And if the estate or anyone else objects to your claim, you need to file your own lawsuit.

This may be a new lawsuit or you might simply “go back” to “divorce court” where you got divorced. But, you “gotta” do it right.

What You Need to Know

OK, let’s say that you opened a probate, filed a timely statement of claim, and if it was objected to, you have an independent action.

Now what?

Expect that the beneficiaries or the Personal Representative (“estate executor”) argue “laches“….. an unreasonable delay by you in trying to collect unpaid child support payments.

Yes, trying to collect on payments that should have been made 20 or 30 years ago seems like a bridge too far, right?

But a 2022 opinion from Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, talks all about this, and…..:

  1. unpaid child support
  2. claims in an estate or Florida probate
  3. the defense of “laches
  4. the public policy and importance of a parent making child support payments.

You can read this case for free. It’s the Holley case and just click this link. Or use this citation: 369 So. 3d 1218. This case provides hope to those who are owed years and years of unpaid child support and now your former spouse is dead. You may need to hire a family law lawyer, but you definitely need a probate lawyer.