Children are expensive! When you and your child’s other parent are separated, as the primary caregiver, you rely on child support each month to help you make ends meet. It only stands to reason that if you’re not getting child support, action must be taken. When a parent refuses to follow the court’s order, it’s not just an act of contempt, it harms the parents and children who rely upon these monthly payments.
By the same token, the failure to pay child support is not always attributable to a deliberate refusal. Some parents find themselves in a situation where, despite their best intentions, they simply cannot make the payments. They have the right to defend themselves in court and see their child, but they can also take action to avoid legal headaches.
Whether you are the parent trying to enforce child support or the one against whom enforcement is being sought, having trusted legal counsel will make a difference in the outcome of your case. Turn to Jennifer Wiggins Moore Family Law for your child support needs.
How Does Child Support Enforcement Work?
Parents have a legal obligation to financially support their children, in addition to their responsibility to obey court orders. The Texas Office of Attorney General’s (OAG) Child Support Division oversees child support payments. While the OAG can take action to collect late payments from parents who are falling behind in their duty, the truth is they have a tremendous amount of backlog of such cases. It may take a significant amount of time before the OAG compels the delinquent parent to pay. It is likely that back payments will continue to accrue and impose a hardship on the receiving parent.
Fortunately, a parent does not have to wait for the OAG to act. The receiving parent can hire an experienced family law attorney to file a child support enforcement suit. Using a private attorney ensures that your case is immediately filed, adjudicated, and given the proper punishment to the non-paying parent – including paying your attorney’s fees for successful enforcement.
Enforcement Actions the Court May Take
Courts take failure to pay child support seriously, which is why the law gives judges various options for enforcing payments. These are a few examples:
- Garnishing wages: The non-paying parent’s employer can be given an order mandating that additional money for the back child support be withheld and sent to the receiving parent.
- Filing a lien: A child support lien can be levied on all types of non-exempt property, including real property, personal property, and vehicles.
- Jail time: The judge may decide to sentence the non-paying parent to jail for up to 180 days for each act of contempt in order to compel payment.
- Intercepting tax refunds: The non-paying parent can have their federal and state tax refunds intercepted and diverted to the receiving parent.
- Attaching settlements and winnings: Personal injury settlements, lawsuit proceeds, and lottery winnings can all be seized.
- License suspension: The non-paying parent can have their driver’s license, occupational license, and recreational licenses suspended, severely hampering their professional and personal lives.
Lastly, a judge can order the non-paying parent to get a job, or a higher paying job, to meet their child support obligation. This power is especially important because some parents deliberately remain unemployed, lose their jobs, or take lower-paying work to try to skirt their duty to pay.
Does the Non-Paying Parent Have Rights?
The parent who is not receiving child support has the duty to present evidence that the other parent isn’t paying, and how much that parent is behind in payments. Importantly, the evidence must demonstrate that the refusal to pay is willful. In some cases, parents fall behind on child support through no fault of their own.
This means that the parent who should be making child support payments has the right to come to court and explain why he or she should not be held in contempt. Perhaps the parent recently lost their job, had a pay cut, or suffered a personal injury that prevents them from working. If the judge is convinced that the failure to pay isn’t willful, the non-paying parent may not be held in contempt but could be required to take steps to start paying again.
One other important right the non-paying parent has is to continue seeing their child, despite the child support issue. Some receiving parents believe they can withhold visitation as a means of compelling the parent to get current on child support. This is not true, because child support and access to the child are separate and independent. The receiving parent can be held in contempt for violating the court’s custody order in this way.
The Non-Paying Parent May Request a Modification
If you are the parent who has been ordered to pay child support but cannot do so due to circumstances beyond your control, don’t wait until a contempt action is filed against you. Talk to a child support attorney about filing a suit to modify the amount of child support ordered. You can do this at no charge by requesting the OAG file the suit for you. But the long delay from them could present even more problems for you. Hiring a capable family law attorney will get you into court quickly to mitigate the damage being done to your life from failure to pay (e.g. reporting to credit bureaus, placing a hold on your passport, etc.).
You will need to demonstrate exactly why you cannot make the payments at their current level, but reasons like a job loss or injury may suffice. Taking this step can save you the hassle of being brought before the judge to explain why you are not paying.
Contact Our Keller Child Support Enforcement Attorney
Child support issues are some of the most contentious in family law, but there are solutions. Regardless of which side of the matter you are on, hiring dedicated legal counsel is the best way to protect your rights and interests. If you are either not receiving child support or are unable to pay it, call Jennifer Wiggins Moore Family Law today.
Jennifer Wiggins Moore Family Law, P.C., serves clients in Keller, Fort Worth, Alliance, Presidio, North Fort Worth, and throughout Tarrant County.
