You lost your job.

Or your hours were reduced.

Or just your pay.

You’ve been trying to keep up with your court-ordered child support.

And/or your court-ordered alimony and spousal support.

But you just can’t do it.

You’re falling further and further behind.

You keep hoping your hours or pay will go back up.

Or maybe that you’ll be able to find a new job, or a second job that will enable you to meet your current obligations, maybe even to catch up.

So you just keep on waiting and hoping … and struggling.

Imagining that you can always go back to court later to deal with any arrearages. (Wrong.)

Soon, your past due support is really out of control.

And, eventually, your ex files to take you back to court because of your arrearages.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Unfortunately, you. Your waiting and hoping.

That didn’t do you any good at all. In fact, it hurt you really badly.

When you are subject to a court-ordered support obligation, whether it’s alimony and spousal support or child support, if you suffer an interruption and/or reduction in your income, you must take swift legal action to modify your alimony and spousal support obligations and/or to modify your child support obligations. No ifs, ands or buts.

Under Florida family law, you cannot reduce your alimony and spousal support obligations or your child support obligations retroactively. In other words, a Florida family court cannot do anything about arrearages you’ve already racked up. You’re stuck with them.

That is why it’s absolutely critical to file a modification of support case immediately. As soon as disaster strikes.

Under Florida divorce and child support law, you can reduce your alimony and spousal support obligations or your child support obligations prospectively, or going forward. In other words, a Florida family court can reduce your support obligations going forward, from the date that you file for modification of support.

So, prompt filing of your modification of child support case and/or modification of alimony and spousal support case is the only way to beat a pile-up of arrearages.

Please don’t be like the many people who wait far too long before consulting Florida divorce and family law attorneys like me about enormous arrearages they’ve already accrued since losing a job.

Canadian Father and Lebanese Mother are divorced.

Their Daughter is now 8 years old.

Father gives Mother permission to take Daughter to Lebanon for a week to attend an extended family member’s wedding.

That was last February. And they haven’t returned to Canada since.

Father believes Mother has remarried a Lebanese man.

Since the alleged abduction, a Canadian family court has awarded Father sole custody of Daughter. And an arrest warrant has been issued for Mother.

But those measures have not been enough to make any headway.

Lebanon does not recognize the Canadian child custody order, and is doing nothing to help Father secure Daughter’s return to her home country, Canada.

Read more in this CBC News article: Quebec girl abducted by mother.

An interesting case from the ever-evolving battleground of grandparents’ visitation rights, such as they are …

Nevada Father settles original child custody case by agreeing to allow Grandmother four supervised visits with Daughter each year.

Later, a psychologist opines that Grandmother’s visits with Daughter should be unsupervised.

Father, disagreeing with the psychologist, petitions the Nevada family court to modify the prior visitation order and to terminate Grandmother’s visitation rights entirely.

The family court judge sides with Father and terminates Grandmother’s visitation privileges.

Grandmother appeals.

On appeal, the Nevada Supreme Court holds that Father fails to establish a substantial change of circumstances, the standard for modification of a judgment or order. Therefore, the original agreement and judgment must stand, and Grandmother’s visitation must be reinstated.

Key to this ruling is that Father is seeking to modify rights already agreed to and ordered, rather than Grandmother seeking to establish new rights for the first time.

Read more in this Las Vegas Sun news article: Court rules grandmother has right to visit granddaughter.

The divorce rate for baby boomers, those fifty years old and more, is higher than and climbing more rapidly than for younger couples.

Yet divorce may impact middle-aged couples financially in ways that have a more lasting impact than with younger people.

To protect and preserve a settlement (especially for a dependent spouse for whom it may be particularly critical), a divorce financial analyst recommends the following measures immediately following the divorce:

1. Check your credit report. You probably should have done this during the divorce as well. After the divorce is a good time to do it again. This should verify the status of any debts that your ex was supposed to be paying or that were supposed to be paid off, catches any confusion surrounding any name changes after divorce and, last but not least, brings mistakes to your attention – so you can follow up and make sure they get corrected. If you are establishing and building your individual credit, you may want to repeat the process a number of times to track your progress.

2. Buy long term care insurance. You may be on your own now, solely or largely responsible for supporting yourself. And maybe children. You no longer have your spouse as a safety net. One catastrophic accident or illness can be devastating. Long term care insurance can plug that hole.

3. Appoint an Agent in Case of Disability or Incapacity. Now that your accounts are individual rather than joint and you probably have exclusive authority over them, it is prudent to designate someone other than your now ex who you can trust and count on to act for you in the event of a temporary or permanent disability or incapacity, whether physical or mental. One or more documents can authorize someone to access your financial accounts for your care and for your dependent children’s care, possibly to manage and/or dispose of your other property and to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to do so for yourself.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal Smart Money piece: 3 Financial Tips for Recently Divorced Boomers

Manhattan Mother is a successful model.

Father is a billionaire.

Four year old Son leads a privileged life.

Round-the-clock nannies, chauffeurs, security, private school, etc.

Mother tells the Manhattan Family Court she needs child support for Son.

$46,000 … Per Month.

And she gets it, or at least a court order for child support in that amount.

After all, Father already pays five figures a month in child support for Son’s younger half-sister.

And New York is an expensive place to live …

Read more in this US Weekly magazine article: Linda Evangelista Wants $46,000 in Child Support from Ex.

Filing for divorce is an emotionally stressful process. A lot of couples turn to divorce only as a last resort after months or years of trying to save their marriage. If you are planning to file for divorce, you should keep a few things in mind to make the whole process as smooth and as stress free as possible, for both you and your spouse. Before you file for divorce, it is important to carefully think through and consider the points listed below to make sure your rights are protected throughout the process.

Financial situation – Knowing as much as you can about your family’s financial situation will help you get a fair divorce. Go over all the recent financial documents, like tax returns, bank statements, credit card information and loan statements, etc.

Understand your budget – The divorce will not only affect your family’s financial situation, but it will also affect your budget. So apart from understanding your family’s financial situation, you should understand your own budget. You will need to plan a budget to give you an idea of how much money you will need to live on, where the money will come from, and how much you will be expected to pay in case you have a child. You also need to manage your current finances, because now two households will have to be supported.

Custody of children – If you have kids, whatever decisions you make should be in the best interest of your children. The court will also always look at the best interests of children to make the whole process as smooth for them as possible. If you are planning to seek child custody, you should keep track of all the time you spend with your kids and how you will justify what you are seeking in court.

Family home – You also need to decide what you will do with the family home. If the home is a burden for one adult to maintain, it may be better to sell it if there is equity in it. However, the person given custody of the children may wish to continue to use the family home after the divorce.

Preliminary Steps – Before you take any legal steps, you and your spouse may wish to try marriage counselling. If your spouse is not comfortable with the idea of counselling, you can at least get counselling for yourself. If things do not work out, you should talk to an attorney who can explore all the aspects of your divorce with you. Your divorce lawyer should be experienced and knowledgeable in family law and he or she should explain the divorce process to you.

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Guest author Richard Jacobs is chief editor of DwiDuiDefenseLaw, a website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer for you, if you need one. You can search for a Philadelphia DUI Lawyer or for Orlando DUI Lawyer online, anytime.