Denton Divorce Lawyer

Child Support Enforcement

After divorcing parents have determined issues such as division of assets and alimony, they have even more items to discuss regarding their children. Parents must come up with custody or visitation plans, as well as an agreement for child support payments.

Sadly, though, many parents fail in their duty to provide for their children and do not pay their prearranged child support. In 2001, there was an estimated $34.9 billion in unpaid child support, with an average of about $5,000 due to each custodial parent. Eventually, about 62% of this was paid back to the custodial parents, but this was after about 36.5% of parents had to ask their state child support enforcement agency for help.

In Texas, the state child support enforcement agency is the Office of the Attorney General. A custodial parent may go to the Attorney General if the following conditions are met:

• The unpaid support must be more than $5,000
• The last six months must be unpaid
• The location of the evader must be unknown
• An arrest warrant for the evader should be issued
• The evader must not be involved in bankruptcy or receiving welfare
• The custodial parent must allow some information regarding the case to be made public

When people do not pay their court-ordered child support, they can be found in contempt of court. With child support cases, it is often called civil contempt or indirect contempt because it does not occur in the courtroom itself. Once a person is proved to be in contempt of court, the court has several different ways in which it can enforce its ruling, including jail time for the contemnor, license revocation, and weekly court appearances.

Contact Us

Enforcing child support can be a difficult process that requires custodial parents to fill out paperwork and appear before the court. If you or someone you know needs help with a parent evading child support, you should speak to a family lawyer about your case. For more information, contact the Denton divorce lawyers of Alexander & Associates today by calling 972-420-6560.