As a parent, it is your responsibility to provide for your child. This is the case regardless of whether you are the custodial parent or not. Failure to pay child support will not only lead to a lawsuit, but can also demonstrate what kind of parent you are in the eyes of your child.
A South Korean woman has recently filed a lawsuit against her biological father, a New Jersey man, for child support and emotional distress after he abandoned her and her mother when the woman was just 7 years old. The woman made contact with her father again in 2011 to inform him that she had cancer, and the man again avoided her. She is now asking the court to warrant a paternity test so that she can prove her relation to the man, and when that is proven, to ask for child support payments that she had been deprived of while she was growing up.
The amount of child support granted in New Jersey is determined by several factors, including the monthly income of the parents along with the medical and educational needs of the child. If the woman is able to prove that she was really abandoned by her father – and if this man proves to be her father – there is potential she could get a large sum of money in unpaid child support payments. Furthermore, the man happens to be a successful radiologist in the United States, which should have made him capable of supporting his child financially and medically. It also adds to the confusion as to the reason for his failure to make payments.
The lawsuit was brought in Superior Court in Hackensack, New Jersey. How it plays out in court will be interesting to follow for New Jersey residents that are seeking counsel regarding their own child support issues.
Source: NorthJersey.com, “South Korean woman seeks court-ordered tests to prove Edgewater doctor is her father,” Kibret Markos, Feb. 3, 2014