State seeking child-support suit's dismissal

Jeffco men claim guidelines arbitrary, unequal burden

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

STAN BAILEY

News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - Lawyers for the state have asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the fairness of Alabama's child-support guidelines.

The suit, filed in April by two Jefferson County men, contends the state uses an arbitrary formula that "does not correspond to any set of rational principles for making a child-support award." The suit names several state officials as defendants.

James R. Blackston of Vestavia Hills and Bradley W. Barber of Gardendale, in opposition to the state's motion to dismiss their suit, said "Alabama's child-support guidelines impose an arbitrary and unequal burden on one of the two most important people in the life of every child in Alabama. This heavy-handed and insensitive disparity creates rancor and ill-feeling between parents that will inevitably trickle down to the innocent child."

Assistant Attorney General Charles Campbell, representing the state, asked the federal court to dismiss the Blackston-Barber lawsuit, which contends that state court officials should be held in contempt for violating agreements that settled two previous child-support suits filed by the two men in 1993 and 1999.

Campbell said the state has complied with prior settlement terms and that Blackston and Barber "are attempting to rewrite the 2003 settlement agreement to create `rights' or entitlements where none exist." The suit said court officials violated the settlement agreement by deciding during a meeting that excluded them to contract with Policy Studies Inc. of Denver, the only vendor to submit a proposal, to update the guidelines.

In a previous settlement agreement, Blackston was named to the court's child-support advisory committee and Barber was named as a stand-in if Blackston were absent. Campbell said their membership on an advisory panel, however, gives them no right to the data or analyst of their choice.

Campbell said Blackston and Barber "essentially complain that the advisory committee's procedure deprives them of the ability to second-guess the source of the numbers found in the child-support guidelines."

The federal Family Support Act of 1988 allows states to receive federal funds for child-support enforcement programs if they meet certain requirements, including guidelines updated at least once every four years considering economic data on the cost of raising children.

"It is time for Alabama to adopt equitable and economically sound guidelines that consider the actual costs of raising children and the ability of both parents to meet those costs," Blackston and Campbell told the federal court.