Minors - עמיהוד בורוכוב, משרד עורכי דין

I have been living separately from my husband for several months now. I wanted ‘time out’ before deciding whether to opt for divorce. I have decided to file for maintenance anyway – can I get it from when we separated a few months ago ?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No ! A wife is not entitled to get maintenance relating to a period before she files her plea. She is only entitled to get maintenance from the time she files for it. Sometimes when a couple come to an agreement the parties will agree on an earlier date from when maintenance is to be paid.

Several years ago I agreed to do a female friend of mine a ‘favour’. She was single and desperate to have children. She begged me to donate sperm, promising never to make any claims against me , financial or otherwise. We are both Jewish. Now I have just received two pleas – one for paternity and one for child maintenance. I have never had any contact with the child who is supposed to be mine but am willing to co-operate with any medical tests to prove paternity. If I am the father, will I have to pay maintenance and what about back maintenance for the last few years?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

Once biological paternity is established, or admitted by the alleged father, a Jewish man who impregnates a single woman is bound to support the child according to Jewish law.This cannot be conditioned by any agreement, oral or in writing.

Usually when a court awards maintenance it does so from the date the plea was made. If a mother has decided not to file for several years it is likely that the court will rule that she gave up the child’s right to maintenance for this period.

Can a child successfully sue his father for maintenance during his army service even if there was never any contact between them?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

Yes , in certain circumstances. For example, the Tel Aviv District Court rejected an appeal by a father against a judgment ordering him to support his adult son during his army service. The father claimed that he should be exempt from paying maintenance because his son was “rebellious” and would not see him. Rejecting the argument, the District Court held that it was the father who had prevented contact. He divorced his wife during her pregnancy and had taken no steps to make contact with his son during his childhood, and had not filed for visitation. Responsibility for parent-child contact lies with the parent, and not the child, it held. It was not surprising, given the circumstances, that the son had not sought contact with his father after years of alienation. The father was obliged to make the first move, it was held.

According to my divorce judgment, my ex-husband is supposed to pay my daugher child maintenence until she is 18. She suffered emotionally from the break-up, she did poorly at school, was held back a year and has not finished school yet, although she is now over 18. When she was 18 her father stopped her maintenance . Can I now file another plea for maintenance for her?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No! As a natural guardian and custodian, a mother can file a maintenance plea on her daughter’s behalf when the child is a minor. However,once the daughter reaches 18 she must file her own, independent plea. Once over 18 a child has no automatic right to maintenance.

My son is a computer wizard and was accepted on a special army programme whereby he ‘enlists’, it finances his university studies and he signs to serve in the army afterwards. My wife and I divorced several years ago and a court judgment obliged me to pay him maintenance till he reached 18, or finished high school or was conscripted into the army, whichever was later. Will I have to pay him maintenance during his university studies?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

The answer depends on the exact terms of this programme and the date of his formal conscription in relation to his university studies. The judgment gave three options for the continuation of the maintenance obligation, one being conscription into the army, and stated that maintenance would be paid according to the latest of the three options. According to this programme the prospective student is ‘conscripted’ into the army shortly before he starts his studies. In this case he will already be conscripted when he starts to study and accordingly the father will not be obliged to pay maintenance during his university studies.

I am an only daughter and found the whole army experience overwhelming and just couldn’t handle it emotionally, having become very insecure when my parents divorced during my adolescent years. I have now been discharged as being unsuited to serve. According to a court judgment my father is supposed to pay me a third of the maintenance he paid for me before I was conscripted during my service . Because the army discharged me early rather than me refusing to serve, will I still be entitled to maintenance up to the end of my intended army service?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No! If the wording in the judgment connects the obligation to pay maintenance to compulsory army service, then the legal basis for claiming it will cease when the army service stops- whether due to early release or because the period of army service was completed. It does not matter if the initiative for the discharge came from the army or the conscript.

Under a maintenance judgment I am supposed to pay my son a third of his child maintenance until the age of 21. The idea was that I would continue supporting him after school, during his army service. Recently my son was discharged from the army after becoming injured in a car accident. He has now started to work. Am I bound to pay him maintenance now?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No, but a father in this situation cannot take the law into his own hands and stop paying his son maintenance. He must make a plea for the cancellation of his maintenance obligation. This is because the judgment ties his maintenance obligation to age – reaching 21 – not the army service. However, because he has started to work this is a ground for stopping his obligation.

When my son was conscripted into the army I paid him a third of his existing child maintenance , according to a court judgment. A few months ago he was discharged from the army having been declared unsuitable for service. He hangs around my ‘ex’s’ home all day, living on the few hundred shekels maintenance I pay him. Do I have to pay him any maintenance now that he is no longer in the army?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

The answer depends on the exact wording of the judgment . If for example the wording connects the payment of a third of the previous maintenance to the son’s compulsory army service when he stops serving in the army – even if he is discharged or released early before his intended period of service is expired – his father’s maintenance obligation to support him will cease, too.

I have a judgment awarding child maintenance. It says nothing about maintenance during the children’s army service. I have heard that nowadays courts set maintenance of a third for children aged between 18 and 21. Will my ‘ex’ have to continue paying some maintenance during the children’s army service?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No! If a judgment making a father pay child maintenance is silent regarding financial support during army service then this omission works in the father’s favour . He is not obliged to carry on participating in supporting the child unless the court orders him to do so. The Supreme Court has held , however, that there is a factual assumption that the level of parental financial support during a child’s military service is reduced to a third of what it was previously . This does not give a child an automatic right to a third of the maintenance set beforehand – but is designed to make it easier to file for this.

My parents divorced many years ago and my father was ordered by the court to pay child maintenance for me until I reached 18. I am now 18 but have not yet finished high school. My father has stopped paying maintenance for me to my mother. She says she cannot manage without it but I don’t want to file him for it because I am frightened that it would spoil our relationship. Can my mother file my father for maintenance like she did when I was little?

Maintenance / Child Support •Minors

No ! The mother of someone who has reached the age of 18 can no longer file for maintenance on his behalf as she did when he was a minor. According to the Legal Capacity & Guardianship Law of 1962 a parent can bring legal proceedings on behalf of a minor due to his/her role as natural guardian. Once the child reaches 18 he is entitled to act on his own account – only if he wishes to do so – but his mother cannot act for him if he does not want to file for maintenance independently.