Nowadays raising a child is incredibly a no laughing matter. By raising a child, you should be able to provide the kid’s basic needs and expenses, such as food, shelter, clothing and educational needs. Not only that, because there are also some miscellaneous stuff that you must be able to provide like pocket money for transportation and the like. In other words, it’s just like giving up a piece of your life for the sake of another being.
That’s why a lot of women are now getting into abortion so as to avoid these uncontrollable expenses that come in raising a child. Furthermore, another consequence of raising a child is that former spouses are often left by their exes being uncertain whether they would be able to stop making child-support payments the moment their ex files for bankruptcy.
In Illinois, spouses specifically ex-husbands, must always continue paying child support, including past due support owed to ex-spouse or to the State. Whether there is a chance that you can avoid paying alimony depends on whether you file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy or a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
If you filed under Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, you may be able to stop paying child maintenance as long as you can provide evidence to the bankruptcy judge that the child support order is not really for your ex-spouse’s support but is part of a property division. This is not an easy thing to achieve and would require the assistance of an experienced bankruptcy lawyer.
The judge can consider your and your ex-spouses’ health, education and earning power in deciding whether the alimony is support or property division, whether payments stop or are reduced upon remarriage or a child turning 18, and whether there was a need for support at the time of the separation. If, as is often the case, the alimony order is designed to take care of your ex-spouse’s support and maintenance, then you must continue to pay the child maintenance.
If you filed under Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you must continue to make all the payments you owe your ex-spouse as part of the divorce, including whatever you owe as part of a property division.
When you come right down to it, filing bankruptcy will not stop a court case for a divorce, to establish paternity, or to collect child support or alimony. If you file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, your repayment Plan cannot be confirmed (approved by the Bankruptcy Court) unless your child support and alimony payments are current. Once you fail to confirm a plan will result in the case being converted to Chapter 7.