The History of Child Support

[Dallas Divorce Attorney]

Child support is the court-ordered support paid by one spouse to the
other who has custody of the children after the parents are separated.
The history of child support in the US can be traced back to the Poor
Laws of 17th century Elizabethan England. These laws were intended to
allow parishes or local communities to recover their costs of keeping
people out of destitution from the relatives of those people. The laws
didn't allow those people themselves to claim from their relatives. In
other words, the father only had a non-enforceable moral duty to
support his children.

In the 19th century, it was felt that the US legal system needed laws
to enforce a father's obligation to support his offspring, and courts
began to rule likewise. One of the earliest American support cases was
Stanton vs. Willson, decided by the Supreme Court of Connecticut in
1808, where the court allowed Eunice Stanton to recover support from
her first husband on behalf of her deceased second husband. At that
time two of Eunice's children had been awarded to her by a custody
decree, and the third had fled from her ex-husband because of fears of
abuse. The court clearly stated in this case that the children’s
father was legally bound “to protect, educate, and maintain their
legitimate children.”

For more information, Please visit: http://www.bbthompsonlaw.com/

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