Now Going to Court-we Had Mediation already....anyone a Lawyer Out There?

I am a law student and I live in Austin (Tx).

1) If his lawyer doesn't want to lose his license, he would NEVER advise any client NOT to pay a court ordered mandated payment. No lawyer would be that stupid, so your stbe is lying to you about that and I would put that in writing, on record and address it in court.

2) absolutely it is in your favor and highly likely to be done correctly in court if you put his new employment information in the decree. and remember, the key words to use is "in your child's favor" not "my favor". okay? because the court will look at this as what is best for your son. what your ex is doing is trying to stick it to YOU, but really he is negatively impacting your son, and that is something you have to hold on to in writing, in court and with your lawyer. Make sure you use words and verbaige like "my son, my child, for him, for his needs"... not "me, I, for me, I need" etc.

3) A judge will always side with the child. If you have custody, that judge will side with the custodian of the child to ensure the child can thrive. If your stbe recently got a job then that means his income has increased which means he can help take better care of his child which means a judge will WANT that in the decree. In Texas, they don't mess around with that, I promise.

4) I am unsure who pays, but if your stbe is requesting that this be done in court, then HE PAYS. if you simply wanted this to be added to the decree but he wanted to pull this through court... then he's silly. he pays.

How in the world has this been allowed to go on for 3 years without a support order? Final divorce or not. My divorce wasn't even close to being hammered out and my husband was ordered immediately to pay based on his current income. He was pissed and quit his job to try to get out of it, but hello....oldest trick in the book.
Anyway, I live in California so things may be different here, but this doesn't make any sense to me and once an order for support is entered, you can't even ask for a modification within a certain amount of time unless you can prove an extreme change in financial circumstance. And, asking for a modification also opens you up to having your amount lowered than it already is if the non custodial parent hides money or has a good attorney to argue their way out of it.
One thing I have definitely learned, not just from my own experience but from friends as well, is that some men have absolutely NO problem ducking out of child support. They cannot see that the money is needed to help support the children, they see it as giving the money to a woman they no longer live with, or sleep with, or get their laundry done by.
If your attorney is any good, and I hope to heck they are, they will urge the judge to compel your ex to submit his current employment and financial information. They can't make a true and fair support determination without that.
If your ex wants to battle it out in court, then he should have to pay for it.
Don't let him scare you.
If he wants to go to court, it opens him up to having to divulge everything, whether he realizes that or not. He will have to prove, based on his current income, why he claims he can't pay a fair and equitable amount toward the support of his children.
I don't know. Like I said, I absolutely cannot believe he's been allowed to get away with paying nothing for 3 years.
Child support is completely separate from the division of property and assets which can take ages to settle on.

Just try to calm down and get some rest and talk to your attorney about it in the morning.

I really wish you the best.
Don't count on anything from your ex. You may deserve it and you may need it, but you can't count on it. I worked and supported my kids myself.

Hang in there.

I can't give you legal advice but I can tell you that it's likely that the judge is going to order him to give his new employment info. And order him to give you the money. I say it's a good thing that your stbe is resisting because he's giving the judge an opportunity to come down hard on him.

He has to supply the court with his employment info and if your attorney had just let it slide you would have to go back to court later. Best to get it done now. Have a glass of wine, stop thinking about it and get some sleep. This will work out just fine for you. Your stbe is foolish. Doesn't matter if his attorney suggested it or not. The court has the absolute need to know his employment.