Befor I was completely done with divorce, my husband recieved a pain and suffering case in NYC. At the time he recieved it, he owed me about $7000 in child support arears (CS in NJ). My county court house told me I should sue the attorney because the child support obligation should have been paid first. Also, we were still married married at the time he recieved his money, is it possible that my name was on the check as well and was forged? I don't know how much he recieved but am guessing around $20,000.
Please help!

If you were still married, how would he have owed support? Was there a separation agreement in effect that ordered child support? Was a lien placed on the award? If the award was for him, then I'm not sure why your name would be on the check. Typicaly awards go to the claimant alone, and not anyone else unless there is a power of attorney or something of the sort. Even if you had been still married, the money would have legally been his.

If you were still married, how would he have owed support? Was there a separation agreement in effect that ordered child support? Was a lien placed on the award? If the award was for him, then I'm not sure why your name would be on the check. Typicaly awards go to the claimant alone, and not anyone else unless there is a power of attorney or something of the sort. Even if you had been still married, the money would have legally been his.
We were seperated for 4 years befor I was able to afford to follow through with filing for divorce. I filed for cildsupport in the second year of seperation. There was not a lein placed on his award.

If nothing was filed against the award, how would anyone have known to pay you back support out of it? Certainly your ex could have used that money on his own to pay what he owed but how anyone else would have known that he even owed you money is beyond me.

I do a lot of personal injury. 99% of the time the settling insurer will also want the spouse to settle and will put the name of the spouse on the settlement check along with the injured party and his/her attorney. This, along with co-signing the Release, assures there will not be a subsequent claim for loss of services (also called loss of consortium) later. It protects the insured against future litigation. The statute of limitations is usually longer for loss of consortium claims, so it's very possible a derivative claim could come up later, hence the need for protection even if teh case settles at the last minute on a bodily injury claim. By the way, those claims are usually not worth much and are worth next to nothing if separated because you would not have been getting services out of your husband anyway.

To answer your question, it is worth inquiring whether your name was on the check and release, and whether someone forged your name. I suggest calling the liability insurance adjuster to inquire.

I can't address the child support issue as the laws are so different from state to state.