We kicked off the year with a successful recovery of unpaid alimony for a sweet Indian lady about 45 years of age.
She found us via social media. Her demeanor was soft spoken, no anger, just tired.
The divorce was years ago, the court order was already in hand. Alimony was fixed by the court at RM 3,000 per month. On paper, everything looked clean; but in reality, she had not seen a single sen for two years.
The ex-husband had perfected the classic playbook of excuses - new job, new number, “business not good.” “later I settle.” “you want money only.”, then eventually, the replies stopped.
Meanwhile, she was covering rent, school fees, groceries for her and their child all on her own. The alimony order became a useless piece of paper folded and unfolded too many times.
We agreed to take on the case and reached out to him directly. We presented the facts, the court order, the summary of arrears and the consequences.
We made it clear this was no longer a friendly reminder. It was a penal notice. Non-compliance meant personal risk, fines, potential civil jail. There was no more hiding behind silence.
In usual fashion, he puffed up at first and tried to sound dominant. Tried to flip the script, accusing our client of being a "gold digger".
We gave him a day to calm down and then the tone changed. His voice became softer and messages longer.
Suddenly, he wanted to “discuss.” That is usually the turning point.
He pleaded for reduced payments in the interim while he worked to find the funds to settle the past and current outstanding sums. Our client was kind enough and instructed us that she agreed for a year of reduced payments. As a compromise, we insisted on post dated cheques to avoid monthly chasing.
Now, our client can finally plan her expenses without anxiety. School fees get paid on time, and rent is no longer a monthly panic.
Alimony enforcement doesn't necessarily require complicated law. We have solved many cases by applying legal pressure, timing, and making defiance more painful than compliance. When the consequences become real, even the most stubborn ex husbands will learn how to cooperate.
Rudi Cheu (rudi@rulecolaw.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.