Child Support Arrears

If you have fallen behind in your child support payments and arrears have already began accumulating you need to act immediately to avoid contempt of court charges. The amount of child support arrears will determine your course of action. For those of you who have only recently missed all or part of your child support payment, you should contact the case worker immediately. Explain why you have not been able to meet your obligation. CSE case workers are overloaded and typically try to avoid court hearings when possible. You may be able to reach an agreement with your case worker to pay an additional amount each month to pay your arrears balance. If you have experienced a significant change in circumstances and can no longer afford to pay the amount ordered, file a petition to modify your support order. For more information on child support modification, click here. Another option is to make arrangements with your ex to either modify the current order or to pay a specified amount towards your child support arrears each month. A word of caution when makeing agreements with your ex; only a judge can change your current child support order. In most states, legal action will not be taken until you are 30 days past due. Therefore, you should pay as much as possible each month. For those of you who have accumulated large amounts of child support arrears, you should first seek legal counsel. Speak with a family law attorney in your area to determine the best course of action. It may still be possible to make arrangements outside of court to pay your arrears balance.

If you are unable to reach an agreement with your ex or case worker, you will likely receive a summons to appear in court and show cause for failure to comply with a court order. Since the penalty for this charge can result in imprisonment, you will be eligible to receive a court appointed attorney (provided you cannot afford one). Take advantage of this! It is very unlikely that you will be able to convince the judge that you did not willfully avoid paying your support. The attorney will help you navigate the system and give you the best possible odds of avoiding jail time. IMPORTANT: Always appear in court at the appointed time! Failure to appear will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest.

Although every case is different, in most instances, first time offenders will have a purge amount established by the judge and not spend a single minute in jail. You will have to pay the amount specified by the judge within the alloted time. Your purge amount can be any amount the judge deems appropriate up to the full amount of arrears owed. The remaining arrears are then considered ajudicated and the judge will order an additional amount to be paid each month as an arrears payment.