The parent that has been given custody can go back to court and initiate a regulatory action if the parent without custody has fallen behind on obligations and is no longer making them by the child support agreement. Court action only requests that the court order the uncooperative parent to abide by the maintenance terms and pay the necessary payments. The parent with the custody has two options for pursuing this intervention: they may file it and appear in court on their account, or they can employ a private lawyer.
In such circumstances, the judge has a few options. Deadbeat parents are frequently fined or imprisoned by the court over “contempt of court.” A judge may also demand payment for part of the unpaid child maintenance before releasing a negligent parent from custody. The parent without custody can prevent all these consequences for not making on-time, complete support payments. Contact a gig harbor custody attorney for help with your child custody cases.
Child support enforced by the state:
The Office of Child support is a section of the greater Washington Department Of the state of Social and Health Services. All parents who are getting child support payments and those who are not are expected to receive those services from DCS. The DCS must offer certain services that comply with both federal and state law, along with:
- determining the fathers of couples’ children who are still unmarried
- acquiring and dealing with repayments, such as electronic funds transfers.
- Delivering assistance for indigenous child maintenance
- identifying missing parents, setting up, changing, and ensuring childcare and healthcare responsibilities
How will a judge and the state of Washington collect the overdue payments?
Magistrates in family court and DCS do have the power to use monetary and legal sanctions against parents who do not even complete the child maintenance obligations. The objective is to get parents who have pending child maintenance repayment. The extensive array of resources available to courts and/or DCS would include:
- Pulling money out of their bank accounts, paychecks, government tax returns, workman’s comp, some retirement benefits, payments from cases, unemployment insurance, and other sources.
- Placing claims on automobiles, yachts, and real estate (land and property),
- As well as seizing valuables in safe bank vaults or anything for auction.
- Denying granting or reissuing U.S. visas, prohibiting the defaulting spouse’s driver’s license, occupational and leisure licenses, and
- reporting the outstanding debt to credit rating agencies
- publishing one’s name on the DCS “wanted” webpage,
- sending matters back to the courtroom and urging the judge to start contempt procedures,
- As well as cases of people who belong to Indian tribes, sending cases to the community for execution.
