When the law is an ass

I'm infuriated to read of yet another miscarriage of justice in the US child support system. This one's from Florida.

A Florida man says the state is trying to force him to pay child support for a child who was born when he was 7 years old.

Rusty Cole, a National Guardsman from Port Orange, Fla., said his tax return was delayed by the state because officials told him he owes support payments for a child born in 1995 -- despite the fact that Cole was born in late 1987, Central Florida News 13 reported Wednesday.

Cole said weeks of phone calls and office visits failed to yield any results.

"They were like, 'Oh, yes, we have it on here that you are the father,' and I was like, 'Ma'am, there's no way,'" Cole said to News 13.

He said an e-mail message to Gov. Charlie Crist finally yielded him an apology from the department of revenue and the promise that his return would be processed.

However, Cole said he will not consider the matter closed until the return is in his hands and he is ensured it will not be a problem again.

There's more at the link.

Mr. Cole is far from alone. All over the USA, states have passed laws that basically allow any woman to allege that a person is the father of her child. The State then issues a summons to the designated person, giving him a short period (typically 30 days) to contest paternity. There's no guarantee that the summons will be correctly served, of course, and in many cases the person can't be traced - he may be out of town, or on a military deployment, or may even have moved to another State. Nevertheless, after the period of grace has expired, he'll be automatically registered as the father of the child, and required to pay maintenance.

Reason magazine did an article about this some years ago, and found the problem to be very widespread. I'm amazed - and angry - that it hasn't been corrected yet. The system may be operating under the law, but the law itself is patently unjust. I urge readers to check on the system in their own State, and contact their representatives to have it changed if necessary.

Peter