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Child support payments can wind up being the source of a lot of long-term wrangling in matters of Louisiana family law. We touched on this a bit in a previous post, highlighting that the process of establishing appropriate child support is driven by the desire to make sure the best interests of the child are being met.

At the same time, the courts are supposed to make efforts to carefully measure how much each parent contributes in income and then base fair support payments in a way that reflects a similar percentage. If a change in circumstances related to income occurs, it is possible to seek a modification of support payments. But remembering that the plan is based on a percentages, a change might not be very drastic.

Fairness, or a lack of it, seems to be what has former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson a bit on edge currently. He is behind on child support payments; at least that’s the claim being made by the grandmother of one of his six children. The claim forms the basis of a lawsuit that demands he pay up on $38,000 in child support he is said to owe the child’s mother.

Johnson, who has also gone by the name Chad Ochocinco, got served the legal papers related to the suit last month in a very open confrontation as he was leaving the middle school graduation of another of his children. Afterward, Chad told news outlets that he isn’t purposely ignoring his child support payments. He has retired from professional sports, and while he is not destitute, he says he just doesn’t make what he did when he was playing.

That’s the kind of life change that might warrant modifying support structures, but the change is something to seek through the courts with the help of a skilled attorney.