Coronavirus and Child Support

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Coronavirus is NOT an excuse to stop paying court ordered child support or alimony. Neither is an abrupt job loss due to Coronavirus closure. Child support and alimony can only be reduced or discontinued with a petition for modification, and you have to prove a significant change of circumstance. This opens up your finances and lifestyle to extreme scrutiny, and possibly even a forensic accounting audit if you have a high net worth (which the court may make you pay for plus relief as is deemed fit). The change in circumstances must be significant because the judge won't grant a reduction based on a minor adjustment to either spouse's income or other financial resources.
The judge may not even consider job loss due to Coronavirus as a permanent change of circumstance, as your finances, assets, lifestyle and employability will all be considered during a support modification hearing. Job loss may grant you cause for a temporary adjustment, but it will not vacate your responsibility indefinitely. Every vacation you take, or purchase you make thereafter will always be in the shadow of a potential reversal, or aggravation of the Court. If you just stop paying without a court authorized modification, you will be subject to penalties, fees, wage garnishment, possible jail time, and contempt of court.
Oh and if you think you are fine because the court is closed...abrupt cessation of court ordered support warrants an emergency motion, and courts are still open for emergency motions and it will be heard. Paying child support sucks. Being the parent that is open to attack due to a change in financial circumstance leaves you forever vulnerable to attack. There is no way around it, it sucks. Especially if you feel that it is unwarranted, and your baby mamma/papa is living large while you are counting pennies.
You gotta remember though that in *most* cases the other parent is not living large, and that support money is being used to feed, clothe, house, transport, and sustain your child. There are a lot of hidden costs to raising children that we may not realize. As the non-custodial parent, my grocery bill triples on the weekends that my kids are here. So does my entertainment cost. My cost of living is higher because I need to rent a bigger apartment to accommodate them. Children are very expensive.
The other parent could also be counting that money toward their budget, and an abrupt change in finances can cause them great hardship. Perhaps they may have lost their job as well. You may hate that person and not care if they end up homeless on the street, but think of your children and the hardship it will cause them in turn.
Still, you may feel that the support is unjustified for whatever reasons you may have and you want to find a way to reduce/eliminate the support payment. If you feel this way, I'm begging you, be smart and do it the right way. Please please please do not stop paying on your own volition. It will mess up your life. Continue paying, until you can be seen by a judge to plead your case. Then and only then will you be allowed to modify the support payment, and protect yourself from legal ramifications.