My Former Career in Child Support and Criminal Felony Law

My Former Career in Child Support and Criminal Felony Law

Rachel Oesterreich, Yahoo Contributor Network

I will soon be starting a decade of employment working for my local municipal government. Well over half of those years were spent as a child support and criminal felony deputy.

Working for the court system begins with the election of your local municipal government offices. My family has a history holding the title of Clerk of Starke Circuit Court. It so happens I started in this office. This office is the record keeper for the Circuit Court and all cases within, including the beginning and destruction of all court documents. My job included the oversight of all documents when cases are created and throughout the life of the case. Court cases include, but are not limited to divorces, juvenile paternity, felony A, felony B, felony C, felony D, mortgage foreclosure, guardianships, adoptions, small claims, civil collections, and protective orders.

For example, in the State of Indiana, when you are experiencing certain life events that may require legal litigation, you either need to obtain an attorney to represent your interests in the court case, or represent yourself which is call Prose. The State of Indiana has provided their residents with forms for such life events on their website here.

Simple facts about court cases include the following:

1. The "Petitioner" is the person who has initiated the court case. The "Respondent" is the person or persons'

2. In Criminal Felony cases the Petitioner is usually always the State the crime was committed in, and the Respondent is the person the allegations are against, also called a Defendant. For example: State of Indiana vs. J. S.

3. Almost all cases require filing fees to be paid at some point. Many States have information on receiving legal aid help. Indiana's legal aid help is listed here.

4. When looking into information about child support calculation, many States have their own standard way they calculate exactly how much child support a parent may pay. Indiana's Child Support Calculator can be found here.

One interesting fact about being a Deputy, Clerk for the Circuit Court is that we issued marriage licenses. Once you received your official marriage license, you could take it to any persons' eligible to marry you in under those States standards. As Deputy's we could also perform marriages; I performed three in my career.