Many Texas residents have followed the divorce between Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandi Jackson. There have been numerous areas of contention between the parties, including debates over how much child support should be paid. In a recent shift, Jackson has agreed to increase his child support payments considerably.
In early March, a judge ruled that Jesse Jackson’s child support obligations should be reduced to just $329 per month. Taking matters a step further, the judge also suspended payments for April through July, which would mean that Jackson would pay nothing until August. An attorney for Sandi Jackson quickly spoke about on the matter, accusing Jesse Jackson of placing the financial support of his children at the bottom of his priority list.
It is unclear what led Jackson to voluntarily up his child support obligation from $329 per month (and nothing for the months of April through July) to $1,529. While the change still needs to be approved by a judge, the full payment for March has already been made. Attorneys for Jesse Jackson have stated that the change was made in an effort to “streamline” litigation.
It should be noted that the couple is still fighting over which state should hear their case, which means that there are four attorneys working in two states to resolve the matter. The cost of that litigation, and a desire to avoid additional hearing on the matter of child support, may have prompted Jesse Jackson to increase his payment amount voluntarily. For those in Texas who are following the case, there are likely to be many more twists and turns before the matter is resolved.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, “After child-support battle, Jackson Jr. now says he’ll pay more”, Tina Sfondeles, March 29, 2017