Meriwether & Tharp, LLC
6788799000 Meriwether & Tharp, LLC 1545 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 300 Varied
If you have divorce questions

In Georgia, Child Support Payment is Not Conditioned on Visitation Rights

  • News
  • Child Support

You arrive on time and at the planned location, and you are absolutely excited to spend some time with your children. As a non-custodial parent, the time you spend with your children is very important to you, because you do not have the pleasure of seeing them on a daily basis. Then it happens - again - your ex-spouse fails to make your children available and you are not able to exercise your parenting time. Although you may be frustrated by your ex-spouse's failure to comply with the court ordered visitation, there is one thing that you absolutely may not do in response. You may not refuse to pay child support in response to the custodial parent's failure to abide by a child custody or visitation order.

There are some states that make payment of child support contingent on visitation. However, Georgia is not one of those states. See Griffin v. Griffin, 226 Ga. 781, 784 (1970); See also Prince v. Dawkins, 242 Ga. 41 (1978); Hagstrom v. Smith, 148 Ga.App. 18 (1978). In fact, if you do withhold child support in response to not being able enjoy parenting time with your children, you may risk having the custodial parent initiating a contempt action against you.

Categories:

Child Support
Back to Blog