@singlemama2017, you may have to petition him then since the divorce was already filed. Your govt agency may be able to help you with fees. You'll have to petition for DNA. In Ohio if the father is listed on the birth certificate the govt agency won't help with fees, it's all out of pocket.

@morganmommy79, I didn’t know until after the divorce

If you're on government assistance they usually go after him anyway for support. If not you have to petition for him to go. I'm surprised they didn't do a pregnancy test or ask if you were pregnant before the divorce. In Ohio they won't let you get a divorce until after the baby is born and DNA has been done. The Judge will set an amount based on his income unless you two agreed on another specific amount.

They typically make them pay back child support. It probably all depends on the judge and the situation. Don't agree on an amount. I did and regret it. I should've just let the judge settle it. My ex is now a jerk and I'm really considering taking him back for more support that he should be paying anyway.

Okay so with tanf, they will go for him. Basically he has to pay that money back. So maybe that's what he got the papers about.

@twistedrenots, I have tanf and also medical

I know it probably varies by state but how much was the fee?

@singlemama2017 do you have tanf? I have medicaid for my daughter and they never did that for my daughters father. I had to physically go and do it myself .

@singlemama2017 ah gotcha. I'm not sure honeslty. Like back child support basically? Maybe so. That would probably be a question for the judge.

Thing is I didn’t even file yet. But with my son being on Medicaid I think they automatically went looking for him.

In my state, idk how it works in others or if it's just mostly the same, I had to go file the petition for court and then take it back to the court house. There is a cost here but there is a waiver form you can fill out to get the fee waived. And then they just deliver the court papers to you and the father about court of course if you're approved for the waiver, if not, they call and let you know if you need to pay it.

@twistedrenots, he already got mail from child support (idk what it said) and isn’t happy about it. I’m really concerned that he’s going to act like a jerk once it gets started. And is there a way to collect for the months before it got set up? Somebody told me that.

For me, when we had court for child support, we went in and the judge asked if we had came to an agreement money wise and we said no, so he gave us a few mins to talk together outside the court room and if we didn't come to a decision, we would have had another court date to establish the amounts and things. No one should judge you. Everyone is living life trying to get by, and it is hard as a single mother, working or not.