Who has to pay child
support?
Liability
is imposed upon both parents. Substantially all states have
adopted the Uniform Support of Dependents Law. Under that law,
"[i]f possessed of sufficient means or able to earn such means,
either or both parents shall be required to pay for child support
a fair and reasonable sum as the court may determine."
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How is child support
calculated?
The federal Family Support Act of 1988 requires every state
to establish numerical child support guidelines. Every state
has "child support guidelines" that applies a percentage to
the non-custodial parent's income. It is from this percentage
that the child support is calculated.
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What income is included in the calculation?
In
the vast majority of cases, child support is awarded based
on reported wages of the payor, as demonstrated by income
tax returns.
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What can I do to enforce payment of child
support?
There
are many enforcement devices available in most states. These
include wage garnishments, making a negative report to credit
reporting agencies, collecting past-due child support from
lottery prizes won by the payor parent, intercepting tax refunds
due the payor parent from state and federal income tax authorities,
seizure of the non-paying parents property, obtaining a court
order directing that the payor parent post cash deposit to
secure payment of support, bbtaining a court order placing
the defaulting parent on probation, and lastly, usually where
other methods have all failed, obtaining a court order sentencing
the defaulting parent to serve jail time.
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These options sound difficult, if I can't
afford an attorney; can I still get help?
Yes,
ask the court to put you in touch with the state agency responsible
for enforcement. For most custodial parents, if there is any
difficulty in collecting support, it is worthwhile applying
for support enforcement services at the local child support
enforcement agency. It is usually recommended that the custodial
parent have the support paid through the support enforcement
agency even if no problems are anticipated as most support enforcement
services take care of the necessary record -keeping, provide
a neutral third party to report to the court concerning any
collection problems, send reminders to the payor parent, send
out income executions and automatically undertake many of the
enforcement methods without cost to the custodial parent in
the event the payor parent does not pay support.
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Can my former
spouse file for bankruptcy to avoid paying child support?
No.
The federal bankruptcy code exempts child support and alimony.
Even if a former spouse files for, and receives relief from
all debts, the child support obligation will not be relieved.
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What if my former spouse is missing?
Many
states have a parent locator service. Call your state's support
enforcement agency and ask about the parent locator service.
If they are not able to help you, you can often locate a missing
parent if you know what state he or she resides in simply by
asking for a search of the motor vehicle records for that state.
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Can I still collect
child support even if my former spouse lives in a different
state?
Yes.
All states have passed the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement
of Support Act ("URESA") or a comparable statute. This act
provides for interstate collection of child support. This
Act sets up the method for enforcement of support orders where
the parties live in different states. Essentially, the party
seeking enforcement files a petition in his or her home state.
That petition is transmitted to the payor parent's home state
and he or she is brought into the court of that state and
the court enforces support.
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