Child and Spousal Support Enforcement Attorney, California Family Law Enforcement Lawyer

Child or Spousal Support Attorney Los Angeles

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Michael Kelly Family Law:
8 Child & spousal support enforcement lawyers, 25 Staff. One of California's oldest & largest family law firms.

Learn how you can save money by assisting in the fact gathering process of your case.

Child and Spousal Support Attorney, Lawyer, Los Angeles, California:

Child support is the amount of money that the court orders one parent to pay the other parent every month for the support of the child(ren). California has a formula (called a "guideline") for figuring out how much child support should be paid in all cases.

Child support payments are usually made until children turn 18, or 19 if they are still in high school full time, living at home, and can't support themselves. Parents may agree to support a child longer. The court may also order that both parents continue to support a disabled adult child that is not self-supporting.

Call us regarding child custody and your right for spousal support. Find out about the best interest of your children and how you can protect their rights to be great human beings.

New Cient Questionnaire No charge consultation (310) 393-0236

Fair and accurate child or spousal support must sometimes be enforced by law!

California Enforcement of Orders: Child or Spousal Support:

1) How can my family law lawyer make sure I receive the court ordered child or spousal support?

All child and spousal support orders can be paid by a wage assignment. This means that the support payment is deducted from the paycheck of the spouse who is ordered to make the support payment.

2) What can my family law attorney do if the other parent fails to make court ordered child support payments on time?

If you have a court order for child support, the payments on which are more than 30 days in arrears, your family law attorney may file on your behalf and then serve a notice of delinquency.

Typically, family law provides that any amount of child support specified in a notice of delinquency that remains unpaid for more than 30 days after the notice of delinquency has been filed and served shall incur a penalty of 6 percent of the delinquent payment for each month that it remains unpaid, up to a maximum of 72 percent of the unpaid balance due.

Please check with an experienced family law lawyer for current and specific interest rates applicable in your specific case and with your specific facts.

3) What if the parent who is suppose to pay child support and was properly served with a notice of delinquency simply ignores this notice?

If the child support owed, or any arrearages, interest, or penalty, remains unpaid more than 30 days after serving the notice of delinquency, your family lawyer may file a motion to obtain a judgment for the amount owed, which shall be enforceable in any manner provided by law for the enforcement of judgments.

4) What specifically can my family law attorney file when the other parent does not pay court ordered child support?

With your assistance, your family law lawyer can prepare and file an Order to Show Cause for a Hearing on Child Support Arrearages. This means you can provide all the facts, details, proof of payments received and child support orders related to the child support payment delinquency.

With this information and with the skill, experience, and procedual proficiency of your family law lawyer and his/her family law paralegal this matter can be formally filed and served on the alledged offending party.

Thereafter, a hearing date is scheduled and you will have your day in family law court.

5) Is there anything my family law attorney do if the other parent does not pay child support and he/she has assets?

In any proceeding where the court has ordered either parent to pay any amount for child support is in arrears in payment in a sum equal to the amount of 60 days of payments, the court can issue to the parent ordered to pay support, following notice and opportunity for a hearing, an order requiring that the parent to deposit assets to secure future support payments with the deposit holder designated by the court.

6) Can my family law lawyer make a request that assets be held for future child support on an emergency basis?

Yes, the family law court may issue an emergency court hearing "ex parte" restraining order as specified in Family Law Code Section 4620. 4611.

In a proceeding under this family law code section, a parent, who receives the child support, shall rebut both of the following presumptions:

The non payment of child support was willful, without good faith.
The obligor had the ability to pay the support.

7) What can the non paying parent do or say about why he/she is not paying child support?

The non paying parent, alleged to be in arrears, may use any of the following grounds as a defense to a motion filed as a basis for filing a motion to stop a sale or use of assets

(a) Child support payments are not in arrears.

(b) Laches.

(c) There has been a change in the custody of the children.

(d) There is a pending motion for reduction in support due to a reduction in income. (e) Illness or disability.

(f) Unemployment.

(g) Serious adverse impact on the immediate family of the obligor-parent residing with the obligor-parent that outweighs the impact of denial of the motion or stopping the sale on obligee.

(h) Serious impairment of the ability of the obligor-parent to generate income.

(i) Other emergency conditions.

Local rules, family law codes, and statues change constantly.

It is strongly recommended you retain an experienced family law attorney who has specific experience in this area of child support. Family law cases change in terms of relevency and case precedent.

Case precedent is defined as a family law case establishing a principle or rule that a court or other judicial body utilizes when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues.

8) What can the Los Angeles County Department of Child Support do if the other parent does not pay child support in terms of credit agencies?

The Department of Child Support Services administers a statewide automated system for the reporting of court-ordered child support obligations to credit reporting agencies. You may wnat to contact them directly.

9) How is spousal support (alimony) calculated?

It depends.

You can ask for spousal support to be paid while your case is going on.

This is called a "temporary spousal support order". Many counties have formulas for calculating the amount of a temporary spousal order. Check with your attorney regarding specific local rules on temporary spousal support.

The judge will not use a formula to figure out how much spousal support to order at the end of your case (called the "final judgment").

When the judge makes his or her final order, the judge must consider the factors in California Family Code section 4320.

These factors are:

The length of the marriage,
What each person needs,
What each person pays or can pay (including earnings and earning capacity),
Whether having a job would make it too hard to take care of the child(ren),
The age and health of both people,
Debts and property,
Whether one of spouses helped the other get an education, training, career, or professional license,
Whether there was domestic violence in the marriage,
Whether one of the spouse's, career was affected by unemployment, or by taking care of the children or home, and
The tax impact of spousal support

10) What should I do if I already have a child support order but I think the other parent's income has changed?

You should give a lot of thought to all the facts in your case before you decide to file a motion to change a child support order. The results can be different than what you expected.

If you file a motion to go to court, but it turns out that you are incorrect-and the other parent's income has gone down-the court can make an order that will benefit the other parent.

For example, if you are the one paying support, the amount you pay may actually increase if the other parent's income went down.

If you are the one receiving support for the child, the support may go down if the other parent's income decreased.

11) How do I find out whether the other parent's income has gone up-or down?

Michael Kelly Family Law can help in cases if you have a judgment in your case (your divorce has been completed, or there is a Judgment of Paternity), we can have a registered process server serve a Request for Production of an Income and Expense Declaration After Judgment (form FL-396) on the other parent, along with an Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150).

The other parent who receives the request must fill out the Income and Expense Declaration and return it within 30 days after it was served.

At the same time, the other parent must also send a copy of his or her most recent state and federal tax returns.
Please note that this form must be served by someone who is not a party to your case and who is over the age of 18 years; you cannot serve it yourself.

12) After formally serving these two forms, indicated above, the other parent never sent anything. Now what can I do now?

If you have not received a response after 35 days, or if the Income and Expense Declaration does not have complete wage information, we can send the other parent's employer a Request for Income and Benefit Information from Employer (form FL-397).

You can set the date by which the employer must send you the information, but you must allow at least 15 days. You must also send a copy of this form to the other parent.

The employer and the other parent must be served by certified mail, postage prepaid and return receipt requested. Or, you can have it personally served on the employer and the other parent by someone who is not a party to your case and who is over the age of 18 years.

13) How is spousal support taxed?

Usually, spousal support is tax deductible for the paying spouse and taxable income for the supported spouse.

14) When dose spousal support end?

Spousal support usually ends when:

A court order or judgment says it ends,
One of the spouses dies, or
The person getting the support remarries

15) What happens if a spouse violates a court order?

If a spouse fails to pay the court-ordered child or spousal support, that party may be held in contempt the court and punished accordingly.

Such punishment can include a fine and/or imprisonment. Because contempt can result in the offending spouse being put in jail, it should be considered only as a last resort.

A spouse or parent who is owed past-due support payments can obtain an "earnings withholding order" which can be served on the employer of the non-paying party.

This can result in as much as 50% of the non-paying party's net income being applied to the arrearage.

In addition, any spouse who is ordered to pay child support or spousal support and fails to do so can have his or her wages "assigned."

A wage assignment can be used to collect current support payments as they become due, as well as past-due payments.

Deductions are made from the spouse's paycheck by the employer and mailed directly to the other party.

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MICHAEL KELLY, CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW:

8 Family Law child and spousal support enforcement attorneys:

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Michael Kelly
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California Family Law Institute (MAP TO OFFICE)
429 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 120
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 393-0236 Fax (310) 393-4221
California Family Law Institute (e-mail)

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