I
am also "self-employed"
in the eyes of the court, because
I own the corporation I work for,
and on an off hand comments from my
wife's attorney: "don't we have
a job program for people like these"
I was ordered to make 5 applications
a week because my reported and actual
income was still $0. (NOTE when investing
in a business taking any money out
is TOTALLY STUPID as you just retax
the money you just put in - but judges
basically know nothing about real
business and assume it is a scam to
avoid paying CS) I was working
60+ hours a week on my business for
the last 2 years and had invested
ALL my savings - close to $300K. This
is a significant business, not just
consulting, but I have developed 22 different
products to sell in a catalog that
is launching this month, have 22 web
sites up and several people helping
me - generating a cumulative six figure
loss to get started. BTW I have
been an entrepreneur and CEO for over
16 years - so this is my established
profession, nothing new.
The
job probation officer recommended
I just write an offer letter to myself
and get out of the program right away.
I forget if it was our first or second
weekly meeting when I simply showed
her what I was working on. She understood
this was ridiculous immediately. However,
it ate up a day of my time every week
for about 6 weeks. My wife's attorney
seems to be from the "inflict
as much pain and suffering on the
opposition as possible" school"
of thought, as opposed to having any
reasonable position or ethics. He
knows damn well, as does she that
I am working my butt off, but they
want to benchmark a high salary for
child support - Sorry bad timing for
that! :)
I
did not create an offer letter right
away, as I wanted to learn more and
not appear to be scamming the system.
But about a month later I showed up
for the job review in front of another
judge as planned and produced an offer
letter to myself. As I understand
it as long as I am making my CS payments
(based on a fictional salary the judge
picked) I don't really have
to pay myself - the company can accrue
the debt to me unpaid. The probation
officer recommended I be removed from
the job program and I was. My wife
and her attorney did not show up for
the hearing, so I am not sure what
they would have done if they had.
However, the key here is that the
probation officer is REQUIRED to not
get in the way of your actual job
and drop you as soon as you have one.
They are not allowed to differentiate
or discriminate and it is a constitutional
right to pick your own vocation that
a judge can not change. I
would spend a little time educating
the probation officer first though
so they don't think this is a scam
either and will support you in front
of the court.
The
court assumes you are scamming and
lying when you say you have no income.
The court officer even said to my
attorney something like "he looks
like he fits the profile of guys trying
to scam the system" - Can you
believe that. The facts are there
in front of them and they would rather
stick with a theory based on their
suspicious nature.
Also
you might want to check into the precedent
Flaherty v. Flaherty. It is
the opposition's side (burden of proof
on them) to prove you actually have
that income amount - not yours to
prove otherwise (as proving a negative
is impossible). They should not generally
go outside the guidelines on this
when you have no income. There is
also a federal law that states any
more than 50% of income for child
support is illegal - trumping any
state court ruling and making any
amount over 50% ILLEGAL!!! If you
are really earning $0 I would cite
this federal law and say you believe
the order to be unlawful. Your attorney,
of course, should know all this but
most are spineless and will not go
up against the judges desire in spite
of the fact that this screws you,
their client.
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