Did Your Deadbeat Ex Move Out Of State To Avoid Paying Support? Learn What Laws Can Help You Collect
While most parents pay their child support obligations without a problem, there are a few who try to avoid their responsibilities. What can you do if your ex-spouse picks up stakes and moves to another state in order to avoid paying support? This is what you should know.
Are there any laws designed to help you?
The Child Support Recovery Act (CSRA) of 1992 was designed just for this situation. It makes it a federal offense to willfully fail to pay child support to a child in another state. It doesn't matter if the parent had a legitimate reason for living in a different state or not and focuses on parents who owe at least $5,000 in support or haven't paid in over a year.
The Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act (DPPA) of 1998 focused more exclusively on those parents who purposefully crossed state lines in order to willfully evade paying child support. For those parents who owe at least $10,000 or are at least two years delinquent on their child support with two or more contempt citations over the issue, the charge increases to a felony with a maximum fine of $250,000 and up to 2 years in jail.
Where do you start to get help?
The first thing that you need to do is get in contact with your local Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA) or Child Support Services (CSS), depending on which agency in your state controls the issue. A private individual or attorney can make an application to get the local enforcement agency involved if no open case exists.
This gives the local agency time to screen the case to make sure that it meets the criteria set by the acts and attempt a resolution before turning the case over to higher authorities. If the agency in charge of enforcement determines that the case does meet the criteria for enforcement, the agency will refer the issue to "Project Save Our Children" (PSOC), which is a multiagency task force dedicated to enforcing the CSRA and DPPA.
How can willful or intentional evasion of support be proven?
Proving that the failure to pay support was "willful" is critical in order to use these laws against deadbeat parents. There's a lot of evidence that can be gathered that will help the child support agency in your state make that determination:
- repeated moves from state to state after being served with child support notices
- clear attempts to hide his or her identity or address, such as not renewing or updating his or her driver's license or renting under someone else's name
- frequent job changes that seem to occur as soon as an employer gets notified of automatic withholding
- living a cash-only existence with no bank accounts
- keeping a mailbox in order to avoid giving out his or her address
- working under variations of his or her legal name and under someone else's Social Security number or cash-only jobs
Investigators are fairly insightful and can spot trends in behavior that lend support to your belief that your ex's actions are willful and designed to evade support payments.
Should you hire an attorney?
Navigating the complex issues involved and pushing for action from the various agencies that are in control of child support enforcement can be a daunting task. An attorney can help you file the applications that are necessary to get the case started with the right agency and gather the documentation that supports the finding that your ex's evasion of support is willful. That can often help escalate a case along more quickly. For more information, talk to a family law attorney, such as those found at Kleveland Law, today.
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