Jenny Partlow, Class of 2004
Recently Receives Favorable Decision
By Sheila Reynolds
This Spring a favorable decision was received from Shawnee County District Court Judge Jean Schmidt on a case Jennifer Partlow handled last fall.
The Clinic's client has a 10 year old daughter for whom he pays child support. In August he was found to be disabled by the Social Security Administration and his daughter now receives a separate payment of SSDI benefits as his dependent. In November, the child’s mother received about $6,000 in lump sum SSDI benefits for the period between the onset of the disability and the disability determination.
Jenny filed a motion asking that our client's child support be reduced, the lump sum benefits be applied to child support arrearages accrued after the onset of the disability and to a large amount of unreimbursed medical expenses. Both the mother and Dyntek (on behalf of SRS) opposed our motion. There is no Kansas legal authority controlling the application of lump sum SSDI payments toward child support arrearages, although there are excellent policy reasons to do so. Jenny wrote a trial brief and argued the motion. Judge Schmidt decided every issue in favor of our client.
This was a fun case to be involved in and Jenny did a great job.
Jenny Partlow graduated in December 2004 and took the February bar in Iowa. She is employed by Union Pacific Railroad as a claims analyst.
