Question:
Hi Jim, I was married to a Marine for 10 years, who was court-martialled and discharged after 15 years of service. We divorced the following year (2018). We have two children. At the moment we are renegotiating child support. Records obtained from his employer indicated he had opened VA disability claims for Tinnitus and PTSD. I have no idea the status of these claims. He claims no knowledge of filing claims and I have not told him we obtained his employment records which clearly states he was granted disability for Tinnitus and has an open claim for PTSD. I guess my questions is, how can I verify his disability status. Thank you so much.
Jim's Reply:
You tell me that you're negotiating child support and I don't get that? Who are you negotiating with? Whatever you come up with will probably be overridden by the court when they apply their standard formula to whatever is going on. I also don't understand how an employer has any records of what he may have filed with VA? If he filed for tinnitus, he'd have filed a claim for hearing loss too...where is that? For what it's worth an open claim counts as zero...it isn't income. Child support obligations are determined by the court, not the litigants. The court will require a financial statement to be accurately completed by either party. That's when you can verify what his monthly finances look like and if you suspect that he's hiding income, you tell the court. The court will hold individuals in contempt of court if they aren't totally honest in reporting income and nobody wants the family court mad at them.