Child Support

The court can order retroactive child support to be paid for the four years leading up to the date the support case was filed. The judge will consider the following factors in making his/her decision:

• what the paying parent’s net resources were during the time period in question;
• if the father would be paying support, whether the father knew that it was at least possible that he was the father of your child, and whether or not you tried to tell him;
• whether ordering back payments will cause an undue hardship on the parent being ordered to pay or on that parent’s family; and
• whether or not the parent had been supporting the child in some way before the court case was started.¹

The court will assume that four years of retroactive payments are in the best interest of the child. However, if you are filing against the child’s father, you can ask for more if you can prove that the father knew or should have known that he was the father of your child, and if he actively tried to avoid a child support case.²

You can ask for retroactive child support at any time until your child turns 22.³

¹ Tex. Fam. Code § 154.131(b), (c)
² Tex. Fam. Code § 154.131(c), (d)
³ Tex. Fam. Code § 154.131(f); see also Tex. Fam. Code § 154.009