Joe Vandusen thought it was a joke when the wife he hadn’t seen in 15 years sent him a court order to pay child support for the one-year-old child she had with another man.
Unfortunately for Vandusen, his wife was not joking and it took him two-thirds of a year to fight the Iowa law that said the husband, not the father of the child born to his wife, must offer financial support.
The order was served to him in February of the same year that he was laid off. He didn’t have the means to fight the order alone, but when he shared his account with WQAD-TV one month later, there was an influx of support from strangers across the country.
With the donations, he paid for a local attorney, Jennifer Olsen, who first set out to confirm that he was not the father of the child. However, because of the law, this was not enough. Although Vandusen walked away successful, he continues to fight this law because of how it personally affected him: “I’m not done fighting. There’s a lot of guys there just like me.”
If you are fighting for the rightful child support owed to you by your ex-spouse or you are unwarrantedly being asked to cover such expenses, contact an attorney with Arenson Law Group, PC. We will try our best to help you through this confusing and difficult time. Call us at (319) 363-8199 today.