But we value our kids so much!!!
"He fell $23,000 behind in what he owed, including attorney's fees to his ex-wife's lawyer. With his modification petition still pending, he was handcuffed in court and put in jail for 30 days."
So WHAT SHOULD WE DO with LOOTING and NEGLIGENT POLITICIANS and EXECUTIVES, hmmm?
A Massachusetts family court system that is strained during the best of times and taxed with implementing new child-support guidelines faces another challenge: divorced parents seeking relief from - or enforcement of - support arrangements as their financial and employment situations deteriorate.
Although the probate court system, which has jurisdiction over child-support cases, does not keep statistics on modification petitions, judges and lawyers within the system say such filings have increased noticeably in recent months as the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed have swollen. Layoffs, cutbacks, and battered investment portfolios have affected custodial and noncustodial parents on all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, along with tens of thousands of Massachusetts children.
Nationally, the picture is just as grim....
Of course, see who the pro-elite Globe focuses on:
For middle- and upper-income families, another financial pressure point is investment vehicles like retirement accounts and college-tuition funds, frequently regarded as communal property in divorce agreements. These funds, normally expected to grow in value, are now being tapped for cash or decimated by a sinking stock market, say observers like Boston attorney Donald Tye. As a result, he says, many judges are adjusting court-ordered private-school and college tuition payments to fall more in line with state-college fees than with those charged by elite prep schools or Ivy League colleges.
Kelley Bothe, a Wellesley psychotherapist who runs support groups for divorced parents, says the emotional havoc being wreaked on families is palpable. One woman in her group is a stay-at-home mother suddenly forced into the job market to help support her children. Two fathers are business owners who are simultaneously coping with a bad business cycle and devastating personal loss. Another is facing foreclosure on his home. Where children are involved, the anxieties grow even more pronounced.
"In any divorce, people worry about finances," said Bothe, "yet there's often a shared goal to provide for kids in the way they're used to. But if the income is suddenly compromised, parents wonder, How are we going to do this and give our kids the lives they've had?"
Not if you are a war-looter, bank, or financial.
Then the taxpayer loot flows no matter what.
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For one divorced father of four who requested anonymity because his case hasn't been settled, the crumbling economy has had consequences beyond the emotional and financial. His $1,400 weekly support payments, plus additional expenses like health insurance and tuition, had been based on a court judgment in 2007.
The man works for a realty business, and since the real estate market has frozen, his income has plummeted. Earlier this year he fell $23,000 behind in what he owed, including attorney's fees to his ex-wife's lawyer. With his modification petition still pending, he was handcuffed in court and put in jail for 30 days. A pretrial hearing on his case is scheduled for May.
"Of the 45 guys I was in jail with," he said, "12 to 14 were probate cases. So I know I'm not alone."
--more--"Links: Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
This mean anything to ya?
