Family Scotland Act 1985

after having paid for my daughter through the CSA for 18 years she is now at college and she has taken me to court out of the blue, I see her every week and spend a lot of money on her and now she is looking for alimony monthly as she is at college. She wanted £500 a month but the Sheriff decided on £140 a month I never had a lawyer can you tell me if this sum is payable the day of the court hearing which would mean it would be in advance or a month from the decision made at court e.g Sheriff decided on 10th January £140 a month so I was going to start monthly direct debits on 10th February

Hi Johno, welcome to Wikivorce.

The Sheriff should have said that the aliment is payable from a specific date. l would think that it is payable from the date the Sheriff makes his/her ruling.

thank you for your reply so that means that it is in advance then, I am sure with the CSA when the make a decision on your payments you get notification and start the following month, as in salaries etc, which is always paid in arrears not in advance:ohmy:

I agree with Ruby, the Sheriff should have made an order specifying a start date along with the amount and usually aliment is paid in advance. The powers courts have are completely separate from the CSA rules and regulations.

However it might be worth looking at a copy of the writ to see what order your daughter was requesting. A court may backdate payments to the date your daughter started the action.