Free Talk Live

Old child support debts could cost thousands of poor men their only income next year because of a policy aimed at reducing the cost to the government of mailing paper checks to pay federal benefits.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.

Sixteen months after his divorce, Richard Parker made a devastating discovery. A DNA test revealed that his 3-year-old son had been fathered by someone else.

Mr. Parker immediately filed a lawsuit claiming fraud by his apparently unfaithful ex-wife. He took his case all the way to the Florida Supreme Court.

California Supreme Court declined to review a Court of Appeal decision that forced Hari Wilburn, a homeless man, to pay tens of thousands of dollars in child support for a child even though DNA excludes him as the dad and he never acted as the dad.

Angry women's groups said last night that it would be the children at the centre of the disputes who would suffer most if money were paid back.

In each case the duped men were able to prove beyond doubt in the courts they were not the fathers using DNA paternity testing.

In the biggest case, Queensland man Ken Rodgers obtained orders for the repayment of $60,000 after making child support contributions over a decade to a woman who refused to even send him a photograph of his alleged child.

Making mothers pay back child support was last night condemned by women's groups.

Jeff Dolan spent Father’s Day in jail, locked away in jail because he couldn’t pay child support, but he couldn’t pay child support because he was unemployed and he was unemployed because the court took his driver’s license for failure to pay child support, after he went bankrupt paying his court costs.

"But what if we gave Ms. Gray and other poor Canadians something to count on: cash directly in their pockets, with no conditions, trusting people to do what's right for them? It's a bold idea, and it runs counter to the paternal approach to poverty that polices what is done with “our” money and tries to strong-arm the poor into better lives. "

Alan Northrop spent 17 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit. When he was finally exonerated, he received no compensation from Washington state.Instead, he got a six-figure child-support bill.

Three parents were arrested last week because their children had been truant too many times, officials said Wednesday. The consequences for parents arrested for their child's truancy include up to one year in county jail and/or a $2,000 fine for each child not in compliance. "Sometimes we have to reinforce the idea that it is a crime to not send your child to school," said Chief Deputy DA Karen Bell. "We don't want to take that route, but some parents force our hand and give us no other choice but to file criminal charges."

Lesbians solicit sperm donor on Craigslist. Man agrees to be donor. Court orders man to pay child support after couple applies for welfare.