Past Due Child Support Payments

Owing past due child support payments can quickly become a major source of stress. Here are a few tips to help relieve some of that stress if you owe past due payments. Most cases fall into a couple of categories: non-custodial parents who have gotten behind on payments because they can no longer afford to pay the same amount, those who have become past due because they were unaware the order had been established, and those who have willfully avoided paying child support even when they had the financial means to pay each month. Non-custodial parents who fall into the first two categories have some resources available to help them navigate the CSE system and avoid imprisonment, suspension of driver's license, and other punishments for nonpayment. If you have willfully stopped paying child support even when you had the financial means to pay it, you are going to have a much more difficult time defending yourself. Regardless of your situation, you should speak with a family law attorney to determine which actions are most appropriate for your specific case.

Noncustodial parents who have recently become past due should first determine the reason. This may seem obvious, but the truth is many payors worry so much about catching up the past due payments that they forget they must cure the underlying cause or in only a couple of months they will be past due again. If you have lost your job, had another child, experienced a financial hardship such as medical problems, or had another other significant change in circumstances, you need to seek a modification of your existing child support order. While a modification will not change the amount of past due support you owe, it will prevent you from continuing to get farther behind. For more information on the modification process click here. In most states, CSE cannot pursue court action against you if a motion to modify child support has been filed with the court. Instead, they must wait until after the modification hearing to bring about any contempt of court charges. While each case is different, in most cases when a modification is granted and child support is lowered, CSE does not pursue the past due payments as long as you pay towards the arrears amount each month and you stay current after the modification. This is not a guarantee! Anytime you are 30 days or more behind on payments, you can be served with an order to appear and show cause for failure to comply with court ordered support. There are few, if any cases, in which a noncustodial parent can show adequate cause for not paying the ordered amount. This means that you will likely be found in contempt of court and be faced with either imprisonment or a purge payment. A purge payment is an amount established by the judge presiding over your case that you must pay, usually immediately, to avoid imprisonment. The full amount of the purge payment will be applied to your past due child support. You will be ordered to pay any remaining past due balance in the form of an additional monthly payment.

If you became past due on child support payments because of a temporary hardship and expect to maintain current payments in the immediate future, you should contace your case worker to discuss payment arrangements. While the case worker is not there to make your life easier, she is usually willing to negotiate with you to catch up back support without going to court especially if you do not have a history of nonpayment or have not accumulated a large sum of past due support. For those of you who owe a large sum of child support, you should hire an attorney. They will help you negotiate a realistic plan for payment of the back support and avoid imprisonment. Noncustodial parents who have been unaware of an existing order will need the assistance of an experienced attorney to help them prove they had no knowledge of the order and make arrangements to pay the support owed.