On August 18, 2014, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) filed a petition for the mother to get child support from her husband. The mother and two children lived in Mexico and the father lived in Crystal Lake, Illinois. HFS believed that the mother was entitled to receive child support services under the Public Aid Code in Illinois.
HFS filed its Petition under UIFSA, knows as the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) UIFSA is recognized not only in the U.S., but with countries who have signed onto the Act (like Mexico). There was no divorce Petition on file in either country. The parties were still married.
The court stated that UIFSA will order someone to pay child support after the court finds that person has a court-ordered duty of support. The Court said that UIFSA itself does not create a duty of support. Child support is regulated and created by statute. There is also no blanket common-law duty of support.
HFS attempted to show the Court that there are statutes which do exist in Illinois, which would let the Court order child support from this father. The Court reviewed the IMDMA (Divorce Act), the Paternity Act for people who are not married, the Public Aid Code, and the issue of common law in Illinois. For each subject, the Court said that there are requirements to be met before child support can be ordered. Since those requirements were not met in this case, child support could not be ordered from this father, for past due support or future support.
If this mother wanted to collect child support from this father, she could file for divorce. Perhaps she had thought parents simply owed support for their children. Now she is equipped with information as to what is available to her, to help raise the children.
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