When a noncustodial parent misses a child support payment or isn’t paying child support entirely, they deprive their child of essential financial support. Without the assistance, the child’s quality of life and care can be significantly impaired. If your co-parent is consistently missing child support payments, the court or the Office of the Attorney General can get involved to help you retrieve your owed stipends.
Though the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) can make impactful moves to enforce child support payment, you can take specific steps for enforcement on your own. Doing so could allow you to bypass the wait times and potentially receive your past due payments sooner. This is important because the OAG is often overloaded with cases, and you might not get attended to as quickly as you need.
When you pursue the process of securing your owed child support through the court, you can address all violations of your court order. So, if your co-parent is not just neglecting their child support responsibilities but is also failing to abide by your custody schedule, we can tackle both problems simultaneously. Additionally, when working with an attorney, you have a personal representative fighting for you, your child, and what you deserve. Whereas when you work with the Attorney General, neither you nor your co-parent is represented. Instead, the OAG simply represents the interests of the State of Texas.
By taking the issue to court, immediate actions can be taken to retrieve your child support. This could include withholding the child support from the nonpaying parent’s paycheck; issuing an order to suspend the nonpaying parent’s driver’s license and other professional certificates, and holding the nonpaying parent in contempt of court, which could lead to jail time or probation.
The court also allows you to take further actions if they issue an order confirming the money you are owed. With this confirmation, you could file liens on bank accounts, insurance settlements, life insurance policies, personal injury claims, properties, retirement plans, and other assets.
However, there are some actions that only the Attorney General can take to enforce your child support payments. The Texas Office of the Attorney General can take the following unique steps to enforce your child support agreements:
- Deny passport applications and renewals
- Intercept any lottery prizes issued by the Texas Comptroller’s Office
- Report missing payments to credit reporting agencies
- Intercept tax refunds or state benefits
The OAG may also help accomplish repayment using the same methods as a private attorney, such as suspending licenses or withholding a non-payers wages.
Under Texas law, interest can accrue on missed child support payments. If the payment is considered delinquent, meaning it was not received within 31 days of the due date, it is subject to 6% simple interest per year from the date the support is considered delinquent.The Werner Law Group is experienced with child support enforcement and modification cases and will help you fight to retrieve the financial support you need to provide for your child adequately. Reach out to us today to get started.