Collecting Past Due Child Support
John Henrick - Denver Family Law Attorney
There are several options with regard to collecting past due child support.
The first decision is whether you want to retain private counsel to assist you in collecting past due child support or start an action with Child Support Enforcement, which is a service provided by the State of Colorado.
The first option to attempt collecting past due Child Support is a Wage Garnishment. Many child support orders have a clause that allows one to garnish wages of the paying party once payments become overdue or missed. Either a private attorney or child support enforcement can prepare and serve the garnishment paperwork on the parties employer. A party can garnish the current child support payment and some portion of the overdue support.
The second option is attaching to tax refunds. If the nonpaying party is at least three months behind you can take the nonpaying parties income tax refund. This can only be done by Child Support Enforcement.
The third option is to Lien Property. You can get a judgment from the Court and attach that judgment to the nonpaying parties real estate. Putting a lien on property is easy to do, however there is no guarantee that the property will be sold anytime soon and therefore repayment may not occur for quite sometime.
The final option, that will be addressed in this blog, is a Contempt Motion. Hiring private counsel is the quickest and most efficient way in submitting a Contempt Motion to the Court. When meeting with private counsel please be prepared to provide us with the following information. A copy of the child support order. The nonpaying parties name, address and social security number. The current employer of the nonpaying party, if you know it. The amount and last payment of child support you received. How much the nonpaying party owes you and a description of any efforts you have made to collect the past due amount.
