You’re live. You’re live on YouTube. Hi, YouTube. Can you tilt the camera just slightly up? No, yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, Larry’s just tall. Just a little bit more. All right. Yeah, that’s good. When I was slouching at your face. Don’t slouch. Don’t slouch.
Alright. Now you’re addressing some video quality issues. It’s Friday. 2 o’clock on Friday. Oh, yeah. 2 o’clock on Friday. Got a big plan? Uh, I’m waiting to see if one of the clients is going to call back with their responses. What? That’s the only thing that’s on my mind. YouTube. Hey, YouTube. We didn’t say which one. That’s a struggle.
Disclosures. All right. Are we ready? It’s too high. Go on left. It’s going to happen.
Any minute now. Hi Facebook and YouTube, happy Friday. Thank you for joining us for Disclosure Live with Brandy Austin Law. I’m Brandy Austin with… Larry Mike. And we are going to talk about Attorney General and child support hearings today. Yes, we have a lot of questions about child support and what to expect during the hearing. So just remember, every case is different. We’re just going to talk generally about the process and…
what it’s like but first we’re going to do our opening segment we’re going to talk about some happy things some day of things so what is it today yes facebook and youtube it is national peach cobbler day i love peach cobblers so hard delicious uh parker county they have a peach festival every year in the summer it’s super super hot but they have really good peaches there
So peach cobbler originated during the 19th century, and when people came over to America, they didn’t have all the equipment and all that, so they would just make this filling and then cover it with biscuits so it looked like a cobblestone street. So peach cobbler. Now you can get it at barbecue. Yes, and it tastes very good with some vanilla bean ice cream. Oh, yeah. Today is also National Blame Someone Else Day.
Right. I blame you for me being here today. Kidding. So National Blame Someone Else Day is always celebrated the first Friday the 13th of the year. So happy Friday the 13th for all of those of you who are superstitious. Yes. And just a little bit more about today’s National Blame Someone Else Day. It’s self-explanatory. So if you don’t want to blame someone, just put the blame on something.
But just keep in mind that it’s all in good fun. Yes. Larry didn’t really make me be here today. I chose this on my own accord. Also, studio loans, but it’s whatever. So let’s talk about some local news real quick. So there’s a public meeting scheduled to be held in the council meeting room of the Arlington City Hall on April 17th from 6 to 8 p.m. This meeting is to gather input on proposed capital improvement projects that could be included in a potential November bond package.
which will include street and sidewalk rebuilds, some park improvements and maintenance for public facilities. Okay, so when you’re driving around Arlington, if you drive around Arlington, Texas, Mayor Jeff Williams has been really good about improving the streets. You always see the signs go up and believe it or not, you see how much those improvements cost there on the boards that are on the side of the road, which I find to be really helpful. So we all know where our tax dollars go, right? But remember,
you have a say. These are your tax dollars. This is your community. You can go to these meetings and stand up and explain why you think something should happen or why you don’t think something should happen. You can also lobby for your street if you’d like. So if there’s a pothole on your street, I know you might call. Sometimes they come and fill them pretty quickly, but if you have a long stretch of road and your whole neighborhood shows up to
better chance that they’re going to actually listen and do something. So just keep in mind that those meetings are public. They encourage people to come. They want to hear what you have to say and then do take into account, um, what you do, what you think. So, uh, also in Tarrant County, the deadline to protest your property values is May 15th of this year. Um, so homeowners who think that their appraised property value is too high, um, and,
As you guys know, if you’re a property owner, the home value went up 8% to 10% across all of Tarrant County. Then you can challenge those appraisals. Last year, there were more than 137,000. I was part of that group who protested their property values. And ours actually got reduced quite a bit. So it does work. It’s not hard and fast. It’s not like somebody came out and inspected your house inside and out.
So you can go and protest and get it reduced so that your taxes are lower. And for our final news story of the day, Fort Worth, as you may know, does not have a clear leash law for your dogs. Or many laws related to pets or ordinances related to your pets being out and about. However, pretty soon you will not be able to take your dog out in your neighborhood on a walk without a leash. There are other ones. Here we go.
Along with that, there is a pooper penalty. Basically, it’s what the name says. If a dog does their business in the street or in someone else’s yard, the owner will be required to clean it up or face a fine up to $500. You know what? They should have to pay. They should. I’m tired of stepping in poop. Nobody wants to step in that. Okay.
Microchipping the ordinance will now require pet owners to microchip or tattoo their pets instead of getting a license. I think that’s just so they can identify them if they go missing and are found. There’s also new intact pet fees. Hey Larry, what does intact mean? Put together. Okay. So if the city picks up a pet that hasn’t been neutered or spayed, one of two things will happen. The pet will be sterilized before they are returned to the owner.
Or the owner will be fined $500 to get the pet back without having it sterilized. That could cause some issues. Spay and neuter your pets, people. Yes. Okay. That one I think might face some excitement from the public. Okay. So that’s the last news story that we’ll talk about today. And we talked about the day of things.
We’re gonna move on to what we’re here to talk about, and that’s the Attorney General. So let me just take an awkward pause for a moment, because we will use this tape later. Tape. Y’all know how old I am. Okay. No. Shoot. Okay. So let’s talk about Attorney General hearings and child support. Child support and establishment
can go through the attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s main office is located in Austin, Texas. And if one parent wants to put another parent on child support or establish paternity, they contact the attorney general’s office and they request an establishment.
Yes, so they do. So it’s literally what we do in every case. A petition is filed and it’s an establishment of paternity case. They’ll identify who the mother of the child is, who the father of the child is. They’ll ask them to bring documents as far as income verification, W-2s, income tax info. And then if there hasn’t been a genetic test completed, they’ll ask for that as well. So it’s just the basis of what they start to get the process moving for a child’s care.
So what exactly is their role? So the Attorney General’s role, they don’t represent the father or the mother. They represent the state. The state has an interest in these cases. Children. Yeah, because there are children being born, and a lot of times there are children who are receiving state-supported funds. Medicaid, CHIPS. Yes, so someone has to be responsible for that. It costs money. It costs money. So a lot of times what the Attorney General does is when they get in,
in these cases, yes, they get child support because the children need to be supported financially, but then also when it comes to any health insurance things that are provided by the state, the state requires the obligor, or the person who is responsible for providing financial, whether it be mother or father, they require them to reimburse the state for those.
You know, Obligoris. There’s Obligor and Obligi. And for like the first two years, I constantly had to look them up. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know. Anyway. Right. So the people, the parents, oftentimes one parent will have to provide health insurance if it’s available to them. Or there will be a reimbursement amount paid back to the state for CHIPS or Medicaid or anything really that maybe can.
Yeah, TANF as well. I mean, you’re taking all the resources that it takes to support that child for your child support. So just a couple quick notes here. Let me just reiterate. The Attorney General does not represent the mother or the father. They represent the state of Texas. So if you are going in it thinking they’re going to make sure that the right thing happens for you,
That is not entirely correct because they do not represent you. They are not your attorney. They’re not the other person’s attorney. They represent the state. They often don’t give you all the possibilities. It’s not their job to give you all the possibilities available. It’s their job to present to you what the state of Texas thinks should be in that case. And usually it’s only related to money and the rest of it, the two parties can work out. Yeah.
So how does an attorney general or child support case get started? So someone has to request it. So a lot of times it will be a mother or a father who will contact the attorney general office through either online or go to one of the office storefronts that are prevalent throughout the state and then fill in the paperwork to request a child support case get started. Okay. We are going to pause momentarily to restart the stream for some reason, and we will be back in just a second. Okay.
I believe YouTube will still remain. Hi, YouTube. Standing strong. Oh, Facebook. Damn you, Mark Zuckerberg. It’s more… No, it’s more internet. Oh, do you know who you should call? Well, I think it’s because I got ambitious and tried to use too much internet, so I’m going to just reduce that back down.
So did you finish how our case got started? I think you did because you paused. Let’s scroll down to the next one. We’re going to talk about how do you know when it… So we are not advertising our services, but we can assist anyone who needs help. Yes. We’re not really advertising. No, we’re not. We’re answering questions. But a good suggestion, always, always consult with us.
Always. I remember what I was going to say that I didn’t say before. Because the paternity test, it’s important to know that you can request a paternity test. Yes. And people think that the state’s not going to pay for it or something like that. They have a vested interest in that. They don’t want to have to get two, five years or four years later, whatever. Are we? Let’s hope to reduce the speed. Part two. Amen.
And you may just want to go ahead and start from the beginning, because I was noticing at the very beginning of the… Doesn’t it go on YouTube? It will go on YouTube. Can you download that video? Yes. Hello. And it’s strong. My dad is more reliable. We’re going live. Alright, here we go again. We’re going to pick up… Where were we left off?
Or no. It’s one of them. It’s going to be red. I swear. Purple. Purple. Purple. Hey! And we’re back, Facebook. If you were on YouTube, we’d have been here the whole time. Okay, so let’s get, we’re going to jump right back into it with a quick note. Fraternity test. If you feel or believe that you may not be the father, because theoretically the mother will know
She’s the mother. If you do not believe you’re the father, you can request a paternity test. Yes. Will the state of Texas pay for that? Yes. Or they’ll give it to the person who is not the father. When in doubt, request one. Yes. When in doubt. And the state wants to know who the actual father of the child is. So this is something that they want. I think it happened again. So we’re just going to continue on YouTube. That’s right.
It is red, but we’re going to continue on YouTube. So how do you know when an attorney general or child support case is filed? Well, one of the easiest ways that you’ll know if it’s filed is someone will show up at your door more than likely a constable or sheriff with some paperwork saying that it’s been filed. Another way that you’ll know that something has been filed is before they even get into that process of serving someone,
they’ll send out these notices, these letters requiring or asking for them to come in to do some type of mediation, some pre-negotiation before getting to the courthouse. So they want to resolve it amicably if possible. Most of the time, many people just throw the papers away. And if you throw the papers away and don’t respond, they will then serve you with a constable or someone will come to your house and serve you with papers.
and will tell you when you are required to show up to court. So, let’s talk about what that court date is like. So, court date. When you first show up to that initial court date, I will tell you that if you are requesting any DNA testing or any paternity testing, nothing will get resolved on that day. The only thing that will happen is you’ll get an order to go take some paternity testing, and then within about a week or two, you’ll get those results back. Then, it’s that next hearing
where you actually have something resolved on whether or not someone’s the father or is not the father. But essentially, once you get to that point, there may be some more negotiation as far as with documents, with records, not a lot of wiggle room on how much child support is going to be established at because the law is the law. Yes, if you’re paid as a regular employee.
Yeah, if you’re paid as a regular employee. Because the reality is the Attorney General’s Office has access to your tax records and can see what you file on your taxes, so they know about how much you make, especially if you’re a W-2 employee or you get a bunch of 1099s because then those all go through the IRS. But if you make additional money outside, how are you going to report that, right? You should report it on your taxes.
Yeah, should we report on taxes? And there are several ways. I mean, you know, depending on that, we’ve represented fathers, we’ve represented mothers, seen a lot of things on different way people do things where they hide money or say they’re not getting paid. There are several ways to figure out what someone is making or around about how much someone is making. So if you claim you only make $7.25 an hour, but
your resources are showing that you make $50 an hour, then there are ways to figure that out. So if you are posting pictures of yourself getting a new Cadillac or a Mercedes every year, you’re going to have to pay child support based on the ability to afford those new things. That imputed income. There’s also the availability of child support if you’re underemployed, meaning you deliberately…
stay at a lower level of income so you don’t have to pay as much in child support. Yes, and people do that. And the state of Texas or the judge or whomever can say, well, no, you need to pay for your kids as if you worked a regular job based on your experience, qualifications, and I guess the market. There is at least some conversation related to that. Yes. Okay, big question. Should you hire an attorney? Definitely.
Definitely. Even though it’s, you know, a lot of people, they look at it, oh, it’s just child support. Well, yeah, it’s just child support for 18 plus years. So this is something that you have to take seriously. And there’s a, even though the actual percentage of your earned income is kind of set, there’s a lot of variation with a lot of different things. There’s retroactive. If you haven’t lived with that child since the birth, there’s potential for retroactive support.
And there’s also the potential to negotiate that. I negotiate that, you know, on a regular basis. That’s just something, you know, if you bought things for the baby and you have receipts and all of this stuff, there’s plenty of things that you can use to negotiate the price or retroactive amount after it’s set. You know, if you have changed jobs during that time, there’s tons of different things. But you don’t know that.
if you’re not hiring an attorney or at least consulting with an attorney. Definitely. And even for the people who won’t. So let’s say, you know, moms and dads. Moms and dads should always look to hire an attorney, even if you’re the one bringing that cause of action. Because the attorney general does not represent you or your…
your best interest. They’re not going to bring up retroactive support. But you could miss out on like four years potentially of back support. So both sides really need to have an attorney. And I will say some attorneys are really expensive. Some attorneys are not. There’s a variation in how much these things cost. They could charge by the hour. I don’t know what other attorneys do, but I know that here we charge a flat fee per attorney general hearing. Now if you have a lot of
disputes related to access and possession and something like that, then it’s going to go to hourly. But that’s just because we’re not just dealing with child support at that point. We’re dealing with a full-on litigated case. But if we are dealing with child support, it’s a super small flat fee. We help save time. I know in Tarrant County and Dallas County and Johnson County and all the counties I’ve been to, Ellis County,
If you have an attorney, you get to go first most of the time in the Attorney General court, so a lot of times it can last all day. I was a clerk at the Attorney General’s office in Waco, and when we went to court, it was an all-day affair. Same people. We dismissed for lunch, kicked everybody out, and when lunch came back, they had to wait at the door and come back in and hope their name was called. So with an attorney, though, we get out of there within a couple hours unless there’s a lot going on. So…
There are a lot of different benefits to having an attorney, protecting your rights, saving your time, all sorts of stuff. So please, please, please, if you get the notice, many attorneys give free consultations. So you can call us. You can look online. A lot of places could at least give you some guidance. Definitely.
All right, well, that is it for our show today, April 13th. Happy Friday, April 13th, 2018. We’re so glad you joined us on Disclosure Live with Brandi Awesome Law. Please enjoy your weekend. Don’t drink and drive. And please subscribe to our YouTube channel, since clearly YouTube is the only one that’s working. You can leave comments, and we’ll get back to you, ask questions. And I guess we will see you next week. What about what we’re doing with Cinco de Balfe? Oh, Cinco de Balfe.
Okay, so we have our fifth anniversary party coming up. It is May 2nd from 336. We’re going to have a mariachi band. We’re going to have a ribbon cutting where there will be a special guest to appear and say a few words. We’re going to have tacos. So many tacos. We’re going to have sangria and free tacos. Raffles and all sorts of things. You have to be 21 to be able to drink, but the sangria will be free.
So, um, and beer, Mexican beer. What is it? I forgot what it was. It was good stuff. Okay. So, but you have to RSVP and you can find it on Facebook. You can email us. You can call us, uh, 817-841-9906. You can find us online at BrandyAustinLaw.com. Brandy, uh, there it is. BrandyAustinLaw.com. Uh, Brandy like the wine. Austin like the city. Law is in what we do. Um, I guess we will see you next week. I’m Brandy Austin with Larry White. Happy Friday.
Bye. You too. Hold them strong. How do I end this? There you go. And Facebook came back up. It was like…
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