The Craziest Child Support Story You've Ever Heard! Proof That The System Is Broken

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Can you tell your story? And that way we can kinda get a good feel of how we got here.

**Rashad Tillman** (0:07)
Got it. So I found out about my child support case seven years after it opened. When I found out about it, I found about it on payday, ironically. HR gets me a call, say, hey, come see us. I go to HR. HR says, hey, we got an income withholding order. That was the first time I've ever heard that. Like, what is the income withholding order? They said, well, they're gonna start garnishing your checks effective immediately. I'm like, who's gonna start garnishing my checks? And they said, child support. I'm like, child support? What do you mean child support? They said, well, here's a notice. I contacted child support. They say, well, yeah, unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done.
You had six months to respond and it's been seven years. And I'm like, seven years? Like, what do you mean it's been seven years? And she said, yeah, it's been seven years. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done. I then go down to the court, speak to the family law facilitator. They tell me the same thing according to family code X, Y, and Z.
There's been a default judgment. It's been seven years. There's nothing that can be done. And that went on for another 13 years.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:11)
So, all right, let's unpack the situation a little bit. So you found out that you had a child support case seven years after it was filed, or?

**Rashad Tillman** (1:23)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:24)
So the child support case was filed in 2000, let's say. You found out in 2007, seven years after that a child support case was filed, meaning that the child was already seven years old, at least.

**Rashad Tillman** (1:36)
Correct, correct.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:37)
So you didn't even know you had a child.

**Rashad Tillman** (1:39)
So there, we gotta take it back when you asked. So the child was conceived when I was 12 years old.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:47)
When you were 12?

**Rashad Tillman** (1:48)
When I was 12

**SPEAKER_1** (1:50)
What year, what year was this?

**Rashad Tillman** (1:51)
This was, at that time, it was 1992, 1991, somewhere around there.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:57)
Okay.

**Rashad Tillman** (1:58)
So it was a while ago. Yeah.
So I was aware that a child was born.
Again, I'm 12 years old at the time. I've always maintained, like I never penetrated the woman. Like I'm 12 years old, we don't know what we're doing. I know that she had a child, but here we go. Now it's seven years after I turned 18 So I now just understand. I'm 12 From 12 to 18, there's nothing. When I get to 18 to now I'm, it's seven years, because they started the case.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:31)
25

**Ian** (2:32)
25, yeah.

**Rashad Tillman** (2:33)
Yeah. So they started the case as soon as when I turned 18 years old. So when I, seven years after that, that's when I found out about the case.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:44)
Wow. So the child is a teenager.

**Rashad Tillman** (2:49)
Yes, at that point. Yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:52)
You had never seen a child before?

**Rashad Tillman** (2:54)
No, never.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:56)
How?

**Ian** (2:57)
When you went to court, what happened?

**Rashad Tillman** (2:59)
Here's the thing. When I went to court, there was no, I took them to court based on, in order to understand that. So look, I tell them, they start suspending my license. In order for me to keep my license, I had to enter into another agreement with them on top of the money that they already start taking. I'm paying them an additional $50 so I can keep my license.
But every year, my license got suspended. So for 13 years, we're doing this dance and I contact them one day, my license gets suspended. I'm saying, hey, well, why do we keep going through this? It's like, I don't even know why I'm doing this anyway. It's fraud. And the lady said, fraud? Like, what do you mean it's fraud? Like, you got served.
And I'm like, wait, I got served? She said, yeah, well, you got served. I said, well, tell me what day I got served. She placed me on hold. She comes back. I'm sorry, Mr. Tillman, we do not have your signature.
I said, before I can say anything, the lady says, but that don't matter anyway. You volunteered into the program. I said, I did what? She said, yeah, you volunteered a program. We have your signature. She placed me on hold, comes back and says, again, sorry, Mr. Tillman, we don't have your signature. So from that point, I knew that they was supposed to serve me and that child support was voluntary. And they said that I volunteered to the program. So I just started doing research. What else are they supposed to do? So once I studied their procedures in, and that's in 45 CFR, that's Code of Federal Regulations, and 42 USC United States Code, it has all of their guidelines there. So once I seen what they were supposed to do, I just started, I went to the court to get the documents that they filed against me in the very beginning to see if they follow their own procedures.