Does Bankruptcy Affect Child Custody or Child Support in Connecticut?

Attorney Answer

Filing bankruptcy will not change your custody or parenting time, and it will not erase child support. The Bankruptcy Code carves family cases out almost entirely.

When someone files, an automatic stay normally freezes lawsuits against them. Family cases are the exception. Under 11 U.S.C. § 362(b)(2)(A), the stay does not apply to a proceeding to establish paternity, to establish or modify a domestic support obligation, to decide child custody or visitation, or to dissolve a marriage. Your family court case keeps moving on its normal schedule and you must keep appearing. The one place the stay still bites in a family case is the division of property that belongs to the bankruptcy estate.

Support also survives. Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(5), a debt for a domestic support obligation is excepted from discharge, and in a Chapter 13 case 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a)(2) carries that exception into the Chapter 13 discharge. Arrears do not go away, and income withholding for support continues.

On custody, Connecticut decides under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-56, which turns on the best interests of the child. Subsection (c) gives a list of factors the court "may consider, but shall not be limited to." Financial status is not one of them, so bankruptcy is not a disqualifier. But because the list is expressly open-ended, a judge is not barred from looking at your finances where they bear on the child's actual needs, such as stable housing.

What you can do

1. Keep every family court date — the bankruptcy does not postpone them. 2. Keep paying support, including through wage withholding. Stopping because you filed will produce a contempt motion, not relief. 3. Give your bankruptcy lawyer every support order and the exact arrears figure before filing, not after. 4. If your income actually dropped, file a motion to modify support in family court. That is the only place the number can change. 5. If the other parent raises your bankruptcy in the custody case, point the court to the § 46b-56(c) factors and to what you have done to keep the child's routine stable.