Dad Not Liable for Retroactive Child Support Before Modification Request Made
Tennessee child support modification case summary.
State of Tennessee Ex Rel. Lisa Holt v. Jeremy B. Holt
[See, Back Child Support Can Be Limited to 5 Yrs: New Law in 2017]
The mother and father in this Tennessee child support case were married in 1997 and had two children. Their 2005 divorce decree included a parenting plan that called for no child support, since the children spent equal time with both parents. In 2008, the father moved to modify, and the mother was ordered to pay $328 per month in child support.
By 2013, one child was over 18, and the state of Tennessee filed a petition on behalf of the mother to set child support for the younger daughter. In 2014, the trial court set father’s obligation at $548 per month, and made the order retroactive to 2011.
The father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. He argued that it was improper for the judgment to apply retroactively. Even though it would be proper to order retroactive child support when it is initially set, he argued that this was actually a modification of the earlier child support order, and that Tennessee law did not allow retroactive child support in cases of modification.
The Court of Appeals agreed with the father. It was undisputed that state’s petition was actually one to modify, because an earlier child support order was already in effect. In the case of a modification, retroactive child support can only go back to the date the petition was filed. In this case, the state had filed the petition in 2013, and the Court of Appeals held that it was improper to impose retroactive child support back to 2011.
For this reason, the Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s judgment and sent the case back to the trial court to compute the correct amount of retroactive child support.
No. M2014-01750-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Sep. 30, 2015).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support.
See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
