This really is a turn up in the adventures relating to Russian Roulette of child Support. How much affect would this law have if it was passed everywhere in the world. There would be a reduced level of fighting over who would own the kids and the moms would not be that ready to lie or make false abuse accusations just to insure they receive endless child support payments along with their vaginamony. I would imagine that they would gladly hand the child/ren over as their worth in gold just deteriorated..
It would indeed be interesting to see the response if this law was ever introduced in the USA..
High court puts pressure on divorced parents to work
Germany's Federal Court of Justice has put more pressure on divorced single parents to work full time and place their children in daycare, ruling they have no right to child support after the child's third birthday.
Divorced single parents in Germany have no legal right to child support after their child turns three if the parent is capable of working full time, Germany's supreme court ruled on Tuesday.
The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe found that the right to financial support from an ex-partner only exists when the parent's concrete circumstances prevent him or her from holding a full-time job.
Taking care of the child was also found not to be a full-time job when child care services are available after the primary school day, which in Germany usually ends at lunch time.
The Federal Justice Ministry said it was reviewing the ruling.
Daycare a good optionThe case was brought by a single mother whose daughter was entering the third grade. The mother was working part-time and receiving monthly payments of 440 euros from her ex-husband. The man filed a complaint, saying that because of a change in divorce law he no longer was obliged to pay child support.The high court ruling overturned lower court rulings in favor of the motherAn appellate court in Dusseldorf ruled against the ex-husband, saying that it would be too burdensome for the mother to have to work full-time and take care of the child. The child had lived with a foster family for two years, and forcing the mother to switch from part-time to full-time work would overwhelm the family, the court said.
The high court reversed that ruling, saying that there was no convincing reason why the mother could not place her daughter in child care in the afternoon, or why a full-time job would be a "greater-than-necessary burden" for the mother. If she has no evidence why she cannot work full-time, then she must work as much as her ex-husband who does not take care of the child.
Ingeborg Rakete-Dombek, chairwoman of the family law working group in the German Bar Association, said the decision means that parents who want more than three years of child support will have to prove their child has a psychological need for the parent to take care of him or her.
She added that the ruling could be problematic because it gives courts the power to judge a parent's "cheapness."
"What comes out in individual cases, or what is determined to be "fair and cheap," is difficult to predict," she said.
Author: Andrew Bowen (dapd, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton
