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The Idaho Supreme Court has determined that the statute that relates to the license suspension provision is valid, regardless of when your order was entered.  Wheller v. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, ____ Idaho _____ (April 8, 2009).  The Petitioner argued that his orders were entered prior to the enactment of the statutue that allowed license suspensions, and thus the State could not suspend his license.  The Court found that because the matter was civil in nature, there was no ex post facto law application.  The challenge to this statute failed.  The warning is that parents that fail to pay their child support can have license(s) (including hunting) suspended.

 

Muriel M. Burke

In a recent Idaho Supreme Court case, the court affirmed a trial courts determination that relocation of the children to California with the mother and an award of sole physical custody of the children to the mother was appropriate.  Danti v. Danti, _____ Idaho _____ (2009 Opinion No. 39, March 5, 2009).  The court described the standard that trial courts use to determine when an award of sole physical custody is appropriate and when granting a party the right to relocate out of the State of Idaho.

The Idaho Supreme Court has recently upheld a trial court's determination that order child support to be lowered to $0 during the pendency and sixty (60) days thereafter, and that either party should then move to modify the child support award.  MacKowiak v. Harris, _____ Idaho _____, (2009 Opinion 34, March 5, 2009). The appealing party in that case argued that the custodial parent it should not be her responsibility to move to modify child support after her exhusband was released from prision and that the child support should automatically revert to the prior child support. The court determined that even though the incarcerated party had not requested in his motion the relief that the child support should be modified at the end of the abatement period, it was the judge's descretion to determine the relief.  

The IRS has provided the following important notice for all custodial and non-custodial parents that have decrees/orders entered after the 2008 year.  Please note this is a change from previous policy:

 

Beginning with 2009 tax returns, the noncustodial parent will no longer be able to attach pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332 if the decree or agreement was made after 2008.  The noncustodial parent will have to attach Form 8332 or a similar statement signed by the custodial parent and whose only purpose is to release a claim to exemption. You can find the Form 8332 at the following website http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8332.pdf