While we’re not particular fond of how child support is typically calculated, the failure for any accountability or oversight, and the sweeping severe punishments that are imposed on child support obligors regardless of circumstances – there are still situations where child support obligors willfully fail to pay child support. For those in such a situation and truly need help, it is important for us to discuss what you can do.
It goes without saying that when a lawful order for child support is entered, the child support obligor will pay the child support in the appropriate amount and on time. It almost every single state in the country now, wage garnishments are mandatory. For this reason alone, willful non-payers are factually the minority of those who are behind in child support. In order to willfully disobey a court order for child support, it takes some effort. Voluntarily quitting a job… Being employed in a job that pays wages in whole or in part with cash… Failure to actively seek employment when unemployed… being self-employed and manipulating the books or hiding substantial addition income… these are some of the ways where child support obligors attempt to get out of paying the calculated share of child support, regardless of how anyone may feel about that calculation.
So, what can a child support payee do when it can be shown that an obligor is willfully violating the court’s order? The are various places you can turn for assistance, and some of those outlets will vary from state-to-state. However, be assured that the child support enforcement agencies, both public and private, represent a large industry with a wealth of often very punitive measures at their disposal. You can:
- Contact your child support enforcement agency to start proceedings.
- Be sure that if you don’t have a formal child support order from court, you file a petition with your family court to have one put in place.
- If wage garnishment is not automatic in your jurisdiction, petition the court to ask for one and shift the responsibility from the parent to the parent’s employer. If an employer fails to comply with the order for wage garnishment, they are responsible for the amounts owed.
- You can contract with a private child support collections agency – something that we do not recommend as they typically take a sizable chunk of anything they manage to recover, if they recover anything, and you may even have to pay fees up front regardless of the outcome.
Regardless of which state you live in, every one has some measure of child support enforcement policies, procedures, and staff. Billions of dollars are spent annually on child support enforcement. We are against the harsh measures which are meted out regardless of circumstances, such as involuntary job loss or unemployment, significant health issues which interfere with income generation, wage cutbacks, and the reality that getting a child support reduction for very legitimate reasons is often extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Loss of licenses (including driver’s license), incarceration, and other punitive measures, particularly for the majority of people who are unable to meet the terms of the child support order for justifiable reasons – is counterintuitive and doesn’t help get support in place. Charging obscene penalties and interest means an obligor who has a legitimate reason for needing relief will rarely, if ever, be able to get out from underneath the mountain of debt.
However, we are very understanding of those people who are in need of the child support from a parent who is willfully in contempt of court and deliberately avoiding payment of their obligations. Those people deserve to be tracked down and put in a position where they can help with the necessary financial resources to aid with the upbringing and care for their children.
What is a lawful order for child support? How many men have become unemployed or underemployed in this economy and have not been able to modify their child support (and/or alimony) obligations because of recalcitrant and gender biased judges? When a father files the proper motion to modify his support obligations due to becoming unemployed or underemployed, why is it that judges don’t use common sense and grant the proper downward modifications? I’ve heard and seen it all in 25 years of dealing with family court matters, and judges have no clue, or do it on purpose. As one can attest, when a married parent loses their job and salary, everyone adjusts their budgets accordingly downward. When a divorced father loses his job and salary, the courts continue the orders in most cases, causing huge arrears to pile up, and thus, threatening the father with loss of driver’s license and imprisonment for child support debt. Why? If the father has done everything in his power to comply and do the right things, such as filing proper modification motions due to drastic changed circumstances such as a lost job (where it takes 18-24 months to find a decent job; not even a comparable one), where is it evidenced that the father is “willfully” not complying???? If the father has done everything he is supposed to do (file the proper, timely modification motion with evidence of his significant changed circumstances) when he loses his job or becomes underemployed, how does that become a “violation” of a “lawful” order? Is the order lawful at that point, when the courts willfully, knowingly and deliberately refuse to reduce the man’s support obligations? I would venture to say “NO!, the order is no longer lawful” because it is creating financial hardship, indigency, and is punitive.
the payee may go to the court and bring an action for contempt for nonpayment here in north carolina.
Yes, that is an option. Of course, we’re not sure that often helps get support, but it is an option. A costly one.
My son’s dad is a child support dodger. He is required to pay 350/mo, drives a leased vehicle around $700/mo, rents a super nice home, is married and self employed. He figured out that he can go 90 days between payments without getting his license suspended or have any adverse action taken against him. The agency wont start any action against him until the 90 days are up. He was required to have a checking account set up for monthly draft to be taken out, then closed the account in the spring.
He flaunts this by taking my son with him when he shops for himself for Ipads, flat screen tv’s, computer equipment..He never buys our child anything, never buys him clothes or haircuts. My son brings clothes over, which never come back. He pays every 90 days when he gets the “we will take your license if you don’t pay by…” letter, I’m so frustrated with this; he is also required to pay 1/2 of all medical/dental, yet he refuses to pay. It OH, the cost to file for contempt on medical reimbursement is $100. I can’t even afford to even take him to court. I work full time and work odd jobs here & there to try to keep it together What do I do?
Melissa – what you can do is take a look at the reality you’re faced with, assuming that everything you’ve posted above is 100% true.
#1 – Ignore what he’s spending his money on. That doesn’t matter.
#2 – If Ohio CSE isn’t going to take action on your behalf, budget your child support for 90-days. Your story doesn’t say that he doesn’t pay it, it says he pays it right up against the 90-day limit of action by CSE. Budget accordingly.
#3 – You say you have a full time job and work other odd jobs here and there to “keep it together.” Find $100 to file for contempt on the unreimbursed medical expenses, for if the expenses far exceed the $100 it would take to get the reimbursement, then it is in your best interests to get action going on that before you can’t afford to pay future medical expenses.
It’s clear from what you write above that you spend a great deal of time worrying about things that are not your business and/or are completely out of your control. You would be doing yourself some good to ignore the stuff that is not pertinent and focus on those that are. They are – budgeting the child support money since he’s paying in 90-day intervals; and getting his share of unreimbursed medical expenses paid.
Good luck.
Thank you; you are correct; I should focus less on what he’s getting away with. Sometimes it’s frustrating to not want to become resentful when you see someone deliberately dodging the rules. I think I would feel a bit differently if he were trying to do something to change it. Sometimes it’s difficult to remove emotion and a sense of fairness from a situation when you are directly effected by it.
I have to clarify one note; when he does pay at the 90 day interval, it’s 1 payment of 350 instead of the 3 payments that were accumulated over the 3 months. If he was paying the 3 months at the 90 day interval, I would definitely adjust things on my end. The frustration I have is; if I were 90 days late on my mortgage, I would be required to make the current payment, plus the other two that I defaulted; same goes with my car, utilities etc. The child support agency states that he is required to pay every month, but the support officer will not start action until there have been 90 days of lapsed time in between payments – regardless if the payment is $10.00 or $1,000. I don’t understand that rule.
I guess they have bigger fish to fry and I should count my blessings that I HAVE a full time job – so many others out there have so much less.
Thanks for putting it in a different perspective.
I have a similar question. My ex husband lives in Georgia and I live in NY. There is a support order through Georgia, and NY child support enforcement collects from them and sends it to me.
The support order is for $420 a month. He pays between $60 and $90 a month and is currently nearly $7000 in arrears. He says he hasn’t had a job for over a year and turned down the Georgia Fatherhood Program, that would have given him job training to find something else. He pays his rent, car insurance, all his own bills but pays such a small portion of his child support, and nothing is every done. He was taken back to court twice for contempt. They write up a new order telling him to pay $470 to start paying arrears, which or course he doesn’t pay, and nothing ever happens. He has never gone to jail, nor has he had his license revoked.
What can I do?