Missouri Court System

by Grace
(New Jersey )

My husband has been divorced since 2007, when his daughter was not even a year old yet. His ex wife left the state and told him he didnt have a choice in the matter since their marriage failed, she was moving back to family, but left when the baby was about 7 months old.

His ex wife, daughter and himself lived in New Jersey at the time when she decided to move back to Missouri, where she is from. Somehow, I guess out of guilt he decided to let her call the shots and file papers with Missouri court system, at the time New Jersey didnt have irreconcilable differences and the divorce would have taken longer than she liked.

At any rate, he is having issue now because his lawyer didnt have his best interest at heart and talked him out of settling with his ex wife for a lower support, and went to court with it. Missouri doesnt take into consideration that my husband the "non custodial parent" lives out of state, in New Jersey so he makes a little more money than if he were to live in Missouri.

They dont take into consideration that the cost of living is about 33% less in Missouri then New Jersey and they dont take into consideration that my husband has been paying her directly EVERY SINGLE MONTH without fail, for ONE child 1000.00/month.

They penalize him for paying her directly and act as if he isnt paying anything at all. I thought parenting was a 50/50 thing here? how can the court tell him he is responsible for 85% of her cost of living???

Our cost of living in New Jersey is OUTRAGEOUS, but we are both from here, our families are here, our work is here and we have another child already.

Right now we have visitation ever few months for a few weeks at a time since she is not of school age. When she turns to school age in 2 years those visitations will stop and we will only see her in the summer months. Isnt there a way around Missouri Form 14 to make adjustments for this type of scenario???

Oh and we were told that we can never file our taxes or have joint bank accounts because Missouri court system will take my salary into consideration as well? How can they do that?

My husband is a wonderful father to all of his kids. He will go above and beyond to make things work out for everyone involved and his ex wife is just not willing to bend AT ALL because of what the Form 14 states. PLEASE HELP