Opinion ID: 1393989
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retroactive Award of Child Support.

Text: A parent has a legal obligation to support a minor child regardless of the existence of a support order. Fonken v. Fonken, 334 Ark. 637, 976 S.W.2d 952 (1998). This court has upheld a child's right to sue for past child support even though there was no support order. Id. We further affirmed the chancellor's award of retroactive child support. Id. Rhonda asserts that she received no notice and that she neither knew nor could she expect child support to be awarded retroactively. This argument is without merit. As Rhonda admits in her brief, the trial court made it clear in the February 1999 hearing that the court expected her to find employment, at which point child support would be set according to the chart. Thus, Rhonda was put on notice that she would be expected to pay child support. When the trial court awarded child support in March 2000, it allowed Rhonda four months to find employment and only made the award retroactive to June 1999. As previously stated, Rhonda had a legal obligation to support her minor children. Although she had been informed by the trial court that she would be expected to pay child support once she was employed, Rhonda chose not to seek employment. We hold that the chancellor did not abuse her discretion by making the initial child-support award retroactive to June 1999. Affirmed.