Retroactive Child Support In Ohio

I often get asked if there is a way to get retroactive child support in Ohio courts.  If the court has not ordered back support in Ohio, options are limited. In most cases, you only get child support starting the day you asked for it.  In the one true way of getting back support, you lose the right to do so if you wait too long to request it. 

Child Support Relates Back To The Date Of Your Motion

In Ohio family law courts, the award of child support relates back to the date of your motion.  If temporary orders are awarded, they usually will start the date you filed your motion.  Let’s say you filed your motion in January, but you did not get a hearing until March.  The court will almost always order that child support starts in January.  The same is true for a final hearing.  If temporary orders were not issued, then the court will almost always order that child support retroactive to the date you filed your motion, not just at the date of the final hearing.  However, this is not true retroactive child support in Ohio because child support still begins with the date you file the motion and not before that time.

Child Support Relates Back To The Birth Of The Child

One can get retroactive child support in Ohio in the initial filing to determine a parent and child relationship.  This order for child support relates back to the birth of the child. In this initial filing, you can also request the cost of pregnancy and confinement.  However, there is a catch.  In order to get retroactive support, the father has to have some knowledge that he might be the father.  This includes the knowledge that he could be a father.  Not every act of intercourse results in pregnancy, nor is every act of intercourse followed by a relationship in which the father would notice the mother is pregnant.  The next limitation is that the child cannot be over three years of age when the retroactive support is requested.  This provision prevents huge arrearages. Prior to this limitation becoming the law in Ohio, courts ordered initial child support orders that included arrearages of over $40,000.  Because it was unfair to place such a burden on someone, the current limit was put in place.     

Attorney Daniel Gigiano.  Aggressive.  Knowledgeable.  Experienced.

Attorney Daniel Gigiano has practiced Ohio child custody and child support law since 2000.  During that time, he has spent most of his divorce practice in the domestic relations and juvenile divisions of Medina County, Wayne County and Summit County.  For these important and often complex issues, it is important you have a Medina County child support attorney, Summit County child support attorney or a Wayne County child support attorney with the experience and knowledge to properly approach these issues.  Attorney Daniel Gigiano’s office is located in downtown Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, and he can be reached at 330-336-3330.