A Florida mom describes seeking child support through the Florida Department of Revenue.

It isn’t pretty. It’s a bureaucratic process.

This mother had to refile her case three different times. Lost forms.

And wait two years for an order of support.

Along the way …

Numerous hang-ups.

Unnecessary trips to the support office.

Lack of responsiveness.

Poor automation.

Little monitoring.

Limited enforcement.

That mother calls for reform of the child support system.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Enough is enough: A call for child support reform.

South Carolina Mother and Father have child together.

Mother and Father break up.

Mother now lives with her new Boyfriend.

Father is apparently late with his child support payments.

Mother calls Father in the middle of the night, demanding support.

Then Mother puts Boyfriend on the phone and he also demands child support from Father.

Father drives to Mother and Boyfriend’s home in the middle of the night with support money.

Boyfriend then allegedly strikes Father in his back with a baseball bat, before denting Father’s truck as he leaves.

Boyfriend is arrested for assault and battery and malicious damage to personal property.

Read more in this [Greenville, SC] WYFF NBC TV 4 news article: Man Hit With Baseball Bat In Child Support Dispute.

There is nothing divorced spouses hate more than paying alimony (well, except perhaps paying their ex’s attorney’s fees).

In the current recession, it is said that the high unemployment rates are impacting working men disproportionately. In the overwhelming majority of cases, men are the ones who pay alimony (although women are increasingly getting their turn these days).

The weak economy coupled with what many perceive as unfair alimony laws have spurred significant anti-alimony activism and large numbers of downward modification proceedings.

Many argue that lifetime or permanent alimony is outmoded in an era when most women work except when their children are very young. Others argue that women still generally earn less than men and make more career sacrifices in most marriages.

Another bone of contention is the amount of alimony payments. In many states, judges have very wide discretion, resulting in unpredictability and inconsistency.

Permanent alimony in long term marriages is commonplace in Florida and there are no formulas or concrete guidelines for calculating the amount.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal Juggle column: As Women Earn More, Alimony Laws Lag Behind.

Mother and three year old Son live with Grandparents in Oregon.

Mother does not work or receive any child support or public assistance.

Grandparents provide all support for Mother and Son.

Not such an uncommon scenario.

Can Grandparents take the dependency tax exemption for both Mother and Son?

Grandparents may be able to claim the dependency tax exemption for both Mother and Son.

The Internal Revenue Code acknowledges the dependent status of either a Qualifying Child or a Qualifying Relative.

Son may qualify as either one, depending on the applicable facts.

Interestingly, a Qualifying Relative does not necessarily have to live with the taxpayer seeking to claim the exemption.

Read all the details in this Portland [OR] Oregonian column by an IRS consultant: Can we claim our daughter and her son who live with us?.

Parent is ordered to pay child support.

Parent doesn’t pay child support.

For a long time.

Other parent knows Parent has bank accounts and other assets.

Still, for the other parent, enforcing Parent’s child support obligations can be a slow, torturous, expensive and, sometimes, futile process.

In Missouri, though, things sometimes work a little differently.

Child support agency learns Parent has bank account.

Child support agency seizes back child support from Parent’s bank account.

How’s that?

Banks in the state and the child support agency there compare notes for the purpose of identifying deadbeat Parents who have bank accounts which could satisfy their child support obligations.

When a cross-reference (or match) is found, the child support agency has the power under state law to simply seize monies in a deadbeat Parent’s bank account and apply it to their child support arrearages.

The child support agency also compares notes with the federal government, in case Parents in-state deposit their money in banks with operations outside the state.

Missouri availed itself of this effective measure in approximately seven thousand cases (out of 300,000) in 2009.

Read more in this Kansas City [MO] Star article: Nixon seeks to tap bank accounts for overdue Missouri taxes.

Husband and Wife are divorcing.

In settlement discussions, Husband offers Wife her choice of:

• alimony in the amount of $50,000 per year for each of the next ten years only, plus half of the couple’s investment portfolio OR

• no alimony, but an additional $400,000 from “his half of” their investment portfolio.

Which is the better option for Wife?

Well, the answer to this question and the evaluation of many other settlement options, turns on the impact of taxes on each option.

In this particular example, a financial planner advises that Wife is better off waiving the alimony and taking the larger investment portfolio, because the alimony is taxable income to Wife but distributions from the investment portfolio are not.

Another important factor in some settlement options requires consideration of the time value of money.

Read more in this Portsmouth [NH] Herald article by a financial planner: Financially Speaking: The time value of money.

Under current Maryland law, couples reportedly have to live separately for a whole year in order to get an uncontested divorce. They also reportedly have to testify that they have not had sexual relations during that year.

A Maryland legislator believes that the requirement of having to live separately for a year makes getting a divorce more expensive than it has to be, than it should be.

And so he has proposed legislation that allows couples who live together, but abstain from having sex with each other for a year, to obtain a divorce. Less expensively.

The so-called proposed “Sex-Free Divorce” is not without critics. They point out that whether a couple has refrained from having intercourse for a year is not verifiable. And, arguably, this new divorce option may induce perjury and circumvention of the year-long statutory “waiting period”.

Still, the “no sex” divorce is not without precedent in the US.

Read more in this [Arlington, VA] WJLA News Channel 8 article: Maryland Lawmaker Proposes ‘Sex-Free’ Divorce.

Mother and Father have three year old Daughter. Mother and Father divorce.

Mother is from Ecuador. Divorce judgment permits Mother to take Daughter to visit Ecuador, but only upon prior notice to Father.

Father goes to Mother’s house in Michigan to pick Daughter up. And finds house empty.

Then Mother reportedly calls Father to tell him that they are in Ecuador.

In a letter, Mother notes that she feels “alienated” since their divorce. Mother also alleges that Father abuses drugs and that Daughter suffered burns several times while with Father.

Father maintains that child protective services has already investigated and cleared him.

Mother hires Michigan attorney, who contends that Mother is trying to protect Daughter.

Mother faces charges of parental kidnapping.

Father maintains that Mother is unstable and should not have Daughter.

Ecudador is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Father is seeking Daughter’s return under the Hague Convention.

Read more in this WZZM ABC 13 news article: Greenville dad says his daughter was taken to Ecuador illegally.

Woman is evidently missing her significant other (Man).

Man is reportedly confined in a Florida corrections facility.

Woman drives to the facility and requests a conjugal visit with Man.

But Woman is late for her appointment.

And, in any event, this facility doesn’t permit conjugal visits.

Woman leaves the facility.

And then returns.

Woman appears to law enforcement officers to be “under the influence”.

Law enforcement officers administer a field sobriety test on Woman.

Woman fails the test.

Law enforcement officers administer a breathalyzer test on Woman.

Woman fails that test too.

Woman is arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) … and held in the very same facility where Man is.

Read more in this [West Palm Beach] WPBF ABC News 25 article: Police: Drunk Woman Sought Conjugal Visit With Inmate.

Valentine’s Day.

Flowers. Candy. Romance…

And domestic violence.

So suggests a UK police department.

The department has been stepping up its domestic abuse awareness and education program in anticipation of more incidents of domestic violence. On Valentine’s Day.

Posters and leaflets encourage victims to report acts of domestic abuse against them.

Trained officers stand ready to help victims from the time of their complaint through the trial of their abuser.

Last year, fifty-eight domestic violence incidents were reported in that county over the weekend of Valentine’s Day.

Read more in this Warrington [UK] Guardian article: Support for Valentine’s domestic violence victims.