Bryant Andrews is a bus driver with the MTA who wanted to have his child-support judgment modified. "The lawyer I had wasn't productive enough for me," says Andrews, who was initially paying $397 every two weeks for his now-18-year-old daughter. After he had to take medical leave from work for an operation on a brain tumor, his payments went into arrears and jumped to $699 biweekly, plus penalties. "They weren't fair on the man's behalf, and everything was geared on the woman's behalf," he says. "It seemed like they were trying to destroy me. They wanted to make the woman feel like she was on a pedestal and I was nothing."
After hearing Middleton on the radio, Andrews fired his $300-per-court-appearance lawyer and hired Middleton, who charges double that amount. "My daughter is not in college," he says. "She has a job . . . why should I still pay child support? The way my payment stood, it was a very serious financial blow. I had no way of being a father figure to my daughter because I was so busy chasing my own survival. Half of the time, I didn't have any money to go see my daughter."
Alana Cundy
Cathy Middleton: Drumming up support
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In two court appearances, Middleton was able to settle Andrews's case. He no longer has to pay child support. "The feeling among most courts is that basically the father is trying to avoid payment and the mother is trying to support the child," says Middleton. "Generally speaking, when a man comes in to reduce child support, it is hard if he doesn't have legal representation."
Middleton has seen an increase in men who want to battle for their rights in court. She tells the story of a male client, a detective with the NYPD, whose paycheck was garnished at such a rate that he was left with $10 every two weeks. She was able to win him a downward modification.
The growth in male clients led Middleton to write a second book: Boy, Watch That Child Support: How to Keep a Gold Digger From Draining Your Pockets Dry.
'I had e-mails from lawyers across the nation that the title was so ghetto," Middleton says about Girl, Get That Child Support, which drew mixed responses from other attorneys. "There were lawyers who felt like it was a good idea, and others thought it was a topic not worth a discussion—the airing out the dirty laundry of black people."
Middleton divides the 187 pages of her first book into chapters like "Who's Your Daddy?" and "Tracking Down Your Deadbeat Dad." A glossary defines the legal terms, and an appendix gives addresses for child-support agencies in all 50 states, as well as a description of how each state calculates support payments.
"It had to be something that wasn't intimidating," Middleton says. "From common people, that's where I got the positive feedback. They would contact me and tell me they studied the book." Middleton makes no apology for targeting blacks and Latinos, who make up about 85 percent of her clientele, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens.
"When I walk into Family Court," she says, "the faces I primarily see look like mine."
