Can an adult child sue a parent for missed child support?

If you’re an adult and one of your parents didn’t pay court-ordered child support for you, you may feel that money is owed to you – and you may want to sue your deadbeat parent to get it. But however justified your outrage might be, the law isn’t on your side: in most cases, you don’t have legal standing to sue your ne’er-do-well parent for the unpaid child support. Child support is owed to the other parent and is not a debt owed to the child. If there is unpaid child support, it’s up to your mom or dad to sue their irresponsible ex for the money.