Child Support Retroactive for Unmarried Parents
Friday / July 13, 2007
The Equal Protection Clause requires treating the children of divorced parents the same as the children of parents who never married.
Connecticut's child-support statute required that for the children of divorced parents, child support must be paid until a child turned nineteen or finished high school, whichever came first. But Connecticut law did not treat the children of unmarried parents the same as the children of divorced parents: For the children of unmarried parents, child support stopped at age eighteen.
To require equal treatment for the children of unmarried parents, the Connecticut legislature passed a statue requiring that child support for the children of unmarried parents last until age nineteen or graduation from high school (whichever came first) so that the child support requirements for these children would be the same as the requirements for the children of divorced parents. The new statute came into effect on October 1, 2004.
Connecticut had been seeking child support from a father whose child turned eighteen in November 2004. The father and the child's mother never had been married. The father argued that the new statute could not force him to pay child support until his son turned nineteen or completed high school because the new law could not change the child support order which had been signed years ago.
Although the trial court and the court of appeals agreed with the father, the Connecticut Supreme Court disagreed with him. In a case called Walsh v. Jodoin, the court held that the new statute must apply even to old child support orders. Otherwise, the court concluded, the children of unmarried parents and divorced parents would continue to be treated unequally.
To require equal treatment for the children of unmarried parents, the Connecticut legislature passed a statue requiring that child support for the children of unmarried parents last until age nineteen or graduation from high school (whichever came first) so that the child support requirements for these children would be the same as the requirements for the children of divorced parents. The new statute came into effect on October 1, 2004.
Connecticut had been seeking child support from a father whose child turned eighteen in November 2004. The father and the child's mother never had been married. The father argued that the new statute could not force him to pay child support until his son turned nineteen or completed high school because the new law could not change the child support order which had been signed years ago.
Although the trial court and the court of appeals agreed with the father, the Connecticut Supreme Court disagreed with him. In a case called Walsh v. Jodoin, the court held that the new statute must apply even to old child support orders. Otherwise, the court concluded, the children of unmarried parents and divorced parents would continue to be treated unequally.