How to Terminate Child Support in Mississippi: Motion and Hearing

To terminate child support in Mississippi, you file a Motion to Terminate Child Support in the Chancery Court that issued the original order, serve the other parent, prove a qualifying ground (most often that the child has turned twenty-one), and wait for the judge to sign an Order of Termination. Payments do not stop on their own, even when your child reaches the statutory cutoff age, so skipping the court step can leave wage withholding in place and create arrears you did not expect.¹

When You Are Eligible to Terminate

Mississippi law ends the duty to pay child support when the child is emancipated. The default trigger is age twenty-one, one of the highest thresholds in the country. Beyond age, the statute recognizes three events that emancipate a child earlier:¹

The child enters a valid marriage.
The child joins the armed forces on a full-time basis.
The child is convicted of a felony and sentenced to at least two years of incarceration.

You can also ask the court to find that a child has become independent in other ways, such as moving out, becoming self-supporting, or voluntarily dropping out of school after age eighteen. These are not automatic. You have to file a motion and convince the judge, and the court keeps broad authority over whether emancipation has actually happened.²

One important exception runs the other way. If your child has a physical or mental disability that existed before they reached the age of majority and that prevents them from supporting themselves, Mississippi law presumes support continues past twenty-one.¹ A disability that developed after the child turned twenty-one does not carry the same presumption.

Before you file anything, read your existing decree carefully. If the order already contains a self-terminating clause tying the end of payments to a specific date or event, your path may be simpler. If it does not, you need a new court order to end the obligation, and any payments you skip in the meantime can be treated as missed.³

Documents to Gather Before Filing

Pull your paperwork together before you walk into the clerk’s office. At a minimum you want:

A certified copy of the original support order, which gives you the case number and the terms you are asking to end.
The child’s birth certificate, to prove age.
Evidence of the triggering event: a marriage certificate, military enlistment paperwork, or court records showing a felony conviction and sentence length.
If you are arguing non-statutory independence, proof such as pay stubs, a lease in the child’s name, or bank statements showing self-support.

If the other parent agrees that support should end, you can file a joint motion or an agreed order, which usually moves faster than a contested one.

Filing the Motion

The document you file is a Motion to Terminate Child Support. You can usually get the form from the Chancery Court Clerk’s office in the county where the original order was entered, and that is also where you file it. List both parents, the original case number, and a clear factual description of the grounds for termination. Give the judge enough detail to understand why the obligation should end without guessing.

Mississippi’s statutory civil filing fees combine a base clerk’s charge with deposits into the Civil Legal Assistance Fund, the Electronic Court Systems Fund, and the Judicial System Operation Fund.⁴ In practice the total runs roughly $140 to $160, with some counties adding small local surcharges. If you cannot afford the fee, you can file an affidavit of poverty and ask the court to waive costs under Mississippi’s in forma pauperis rules.

Serving the Other Parent

Once the clerk accepts your motion, you have to notify the other parent through formal service of process. Mississippi’s Rules of Civil Procedure allow personal delivery by a process server or sheriff, certified mail, or first-class mail paired with an acknowledgment-of-service form.⁵ A process server has to be at least eighteen and cannot be a party to the case. Hiring a private server or using the sheriff typically costs between $20 and $100 depending on the county and how hard the other parent is to locate. Hold onto the proof-of-service document; you will need it at the hearing.

The Hearing and the Termination Order

After service, the court sets a hearing. The other parent can appear and contest, so plan to present your evidence in person, including the original support order, the birth certificate, and whatever documents back the specific ground you are claiming.²

If the judge is satisfied, the court signs an Order of Termination. That signed order is what actually ends your obligation. Until then, keep paying. Stopping on your own before the order is signed can create enforceable arrears even when your child has already turned twenty-one or already experienced a qualifying event.

Stopping Wage Withholding After the Order

A signed termination order does not automatically turn off the deduction from your paycheck. Take a certified copy of the order directly to your employer’s payroll department. If the Mississippi Department of Human Services or the State Disbursement Unit has been handling your case, give them a copy too so they can update their records and send an official notice to your employer.

When the original Income Withholding for Support order came from a child support agency, that agency is responsible for sending the employer an updated notice telling them to stop withholding.⁶ Follow up with both the employer and the agency to confirm deductions have actually stopped. Overpaid amounts should be refundable, but recovering them takes time, so catch it early.

Arrears Do Not Disappear

Ending the ongoing obligation does not erase anything you already owe. Under Mississippi law, emancipation does not cancel existing arrears, and any schedule of payments toward that balance continues until the debt is cleared.¹ The custodial parent or the state can keep collecting after your child is a fully independent adult. Mississippi does not charge interest on child support arrears, so the balance will not grow on its own, but enforcement tools such as license suspension, tax refund interception, and contempt of court remain available. The Order of Termination typically addresses only future payments; if you want the court to deal with the back balance, you have to raise that specifically and persuade the judge to act on it.

1
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-11-65 – Custody and Support of Minor Children; Additional Remedies; Determination of Emancipation
2
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-5-23 – Custody of Children; Alimony; Effect of Military Duty on Custody and Visitation
3
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-11-103 – Entry of Order for Withholding; Content; Copies; Duration
4
Justia. Mississippi Code 25-7-9 – Clerks of the Chancery Court
5
Mississippi Courts. Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 4
6
The Administration for Children and Families. Terminations