Marriage of Allen

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Lewis and Danielle were married in 1982 and had four children. In 1996, Danielle filed for divorce. At the time, the Allen children were ages 5, 9, 10, and 12 years old. The 1998 judgment required Lewis to pay $3,200 per month in family support. In 2002, Danielle remarried. The court suspended the family support order, and ordered Lewis to pay $2,500 per month in child support and $1,000 per month toward his arrearages. Later that year, Lewis’s child support was reduced to $1,932 per month. The youngest Allen child turned 18 in 2008. Lewis made some payments, but failed to fully comply with the trial court’s orders. He was declared a contemptuous litigant because he “made no reasonable efforts to support his children.” Lewis “terminated his job in September 2000 and moved to Utah to avoid payment of support.” In 2002, a bench warrant was issued for Lewis’s arrest. Lewis later moved out of the United States. He made infrequent payments thereafter. Almost two decades later, in September 2020, Lewis emailed Danielle to discuss resolving the support arrearages. Throughout their discussions, Danielle consistently maintained that Lewis’s total unpaid…