Assistance in Enforcing Child Support Orders

There are several different places where you can look for assistance if you are seeking to enforce an order for past-due child support.

State and District Attorneys
State attorneys or district attorneys are available to help with collection of child support, though their efficiency varies from district to district. Some parents to whom support is due have complained of delays in handling of support claims. State attorneys provide their services at no costs to parents who are receiving public aid. If parents do not receive public aid, a state attorney also can still provide assistance, but a small charge (usually less than $25) may apply.

Private Attorneys
Private attorneys can also help parents with collection of child support. The attorney’s normal rates will apply, although some attorneys may be willing the handle the case for a contingency fee, which means the lawyer will take a portion of whatever is collected, but the client will not have to pay the attorney if nothing is collected. The permissibility of using contingency fees to collect past-due support varies from state to state. The amount of the contingency fee also varies, but a payment to the attorney of one-third of the amount collected is a common arrangement.

Attorney fees also can be assessed against the party who was supposed to pay support, but did not. In that case, the parent who was supposed to pay support will pay for the attorney of the other parent in addition to his or her own attorney fees.

Collection Agencies
Another way of collecting past-due child support is to use a collection agency. Some collection agencies will handle collection of child support just as they handle collection of business debts or credit card debts. Collection agencies usually charge a contingency fee. Collection agencies can be found through the Yellow Pages (particularly the “Business” volume of the Yellow Pages, if there is a separate volume for business-related services).

Federal Prosecution
Although prosecutors involved in punishing parents who do not pay child support usually work for state or county governments, federal prosecutors can get involved too. In 1992, Congress passed the Child Support Recovery Act, which makes it a federal crime to willfully fail to pay child support to a child who resides in another state if the past-due amount has been unpaid for more than one year or exceeds $5,000. Punishments under the federal law include up to six months imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for a first offense, and up to two years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for a repeat offense.

Federal prosecutors are not the primary enforcers of past-due child support payments. Most U.S. Attorneys prefer to use their resources for larger scale criminal activity, although they will pursue some of the more egregious cases. For parents seeking government help in collecting child support, local prosecutors are likely to have more to offer than federal prosecutors, unless the amount of past-due support is very large and the obligor lives in a different state than the parent to whom support is due.

One egregious case that arose before passage of the federal law was handled by Arizona prosecutors. A thirty-five year-old man was ordered to pay $600 per month support for his three children, but never made a payment, according to Arizona child support officials. The man moved from state to state, changing the spelling of his name and his Social Security number four times in an effort to avoid collection of support. When prosecutors finally caught up with the man ten years after the original support order, the man owed $108,000 in past-due support and interest. He was sentenced to one and a-half years in prison.

Most parents who owe support do not make such a career out of avoiding support obligations. Nonetheless enforcement of support can be difficult.