Child support cases can get pretty nasty.
Families at odds over finances can become very toxic, especially if there is big money on the table. For celebrities, this can mean child support fees in the six-digit range. This is why men are accused of trying to lock down rich celebrities in hopes of coming up off a sizable child support settlement.
However, for one Wyoming man, that is not the case, and he has been fighting possibly the most agreeable child support amount on the planet. Michael Scott Carroll was in court with the mother of his child trying to get an appeal on recent child support charges he’d been asked to pay.
During he and his ex-wife’s 2012 divorce, he was ordered to provide financial support for his child, but due to him being in jail at the time, he did not have sufficient finances. As a result, they asked him to pay the minimum, which was $50 a month.
Carroll was not too pleased about this and began pushing back against the amount, believing that the child support laws directly went against his federal rights. Carroll argued, “the law setting Wyoming’s minimum child support payment was contrary to federal law” and took the case all the way up to the supreme court.
They immediately threw out his case, arguing that his choice to challenge the withholding order rather than the court-ordered child support order prompted them to dismiss his ask. Seeing the error in his first attempt, Carroll turned around and came right back in swinging, this time challenging the child support directly. He was denied a second time as well.
To make matters worst, they told him that had he come forward again and argue his case during the divorce proceedings. One of the justices said that “Mr. Carroll could have challenged the statute’s constitutionality in the district court during his divorce proceedings.”
They went on to explain that “the cases from other jurisdictions he relies on to support his argument that the statute is unconstitutional were decided before the divorce decree was entered, and he could have appealed the divorce decree.”
Unfortunately, he did not do this, so he is no longer eligible to “use (court procedure) for the relief he seeks.” Some men would kill to be in Carroll’s position, including Kanye West, who was recently told he’d be paying $200k monthly for the children he shared with Kim Kardashian.
Halle Berry has been forking up $16k to support her ex-husband Gabriel Aubrey when he is taking care of their daughter. Berry called the payment “extortion” and argued that she felt child support should be based on the needs of the children and not the parent’s income.
If Berry had her way, Carroll would be paying a lot more than the $50 a month, considering it takes about $1200 a month to care for a child.
However, he has gotten off extremely lucky compared to others. Hopefully, he has realized this and started helping out with his kids.
