Birmingham Child Support Enforcement Lawyer
If you have been awarded child support and are not receiving it, or payments have stopped, you may wonder what recourse is available to you. Many people are dependent on the financial support these payments provide and when they are no longer receiving it, things can become very difficult. Fortunately, there are ways to enforce a child support order. Our Birmingham child support enforcement lawyer can help you do it.
How to Enforce Child Support
If you have been awarded child support, the other parent is required to pay you a certain amount within the timeframe stated on the order. Usually, this is every week or every two weeks. Once the other parent fails to pay support, they are in violation of the court order but you can enforce it. You can do this by contacting the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Alabama Department of Health Services (CSED).
Another option available to you is to contact a Birmingham child support enforcement lawyer. A lawyer can appear in court on your behalf and ask a judge to enforce the child support order. This is often a better option when the local CSED office is backlogged with many cases, which happens quite often.
Ways Child Support Orders are Enforced
There are many ways in which CSED or the family courts will enforce a child support order. These are as follows:
- Wage garnishments taken directly from the payer’s paycheck
- Reporting the noncustodial parent to the credit bureau when $1000 or more is owed
- Intercepting income tax returns when the non-paying parent owes more than $500
- Suspensions and revocations of a driver’s license, professional license, or recreational license
- Revocation, suspension, or denial of a passport when the amount owed is $5,000 or more
- Liens placed on the noncustodial parent’s property, such as their vehicle or home
In order for any enforcement method to take effect, the parent responsible for paying support must be notified of the action being taken against them. After the debt has been repaired and the payer provides proof of payment, the restriction is then lifted.
Contempt of Court
Another way to enforce child support is to petition the court to find the noncustodial parent in contempt of court. Doing so means appearing in court and receiving a contempt order. Being held in contempt means a person has not complied with a court order.
You can petition the court to find the other parent in contempt if they have not paid child support for at least 30 days. If it is proven that they have intentionally failed to pay child support, they can be held in contempt. There are many possible penalties for being held in contempt of court, with jail time being one of them.
Our Child Support Enforcement Lawyer in Birmingham Can Help You Through the Process
If you have not received the child support owed to you, our Birmingham child support enforcement lawyer at Peeples Law can guide you through the process so you obtain the payments you are entitled to. Call us now at 205-403-5577 or contact us online to schedule a consultation.
