Collecting Child Support Arrearages

The topic of collecting child support arrearages is a broad one, and I can’t fully address it in one blog post. This post will focus only on the issue of when to pursue collection of arrearages.A client will often appear in my office wanting to pursue collection of unpaid child support, or what we call in the business child support “arrearages.” If the child support obligor (the parent ordered to pay support to the other) has not paid child support for several years, in most cases it will be appropriate to pursue collection of the arrearages immediately.When child support has been unpaid for a shorter time, however, the decision becomes more difficult. For example, if the child support obligation is $600 per month and the obligor has failed to pay for only two months, the attorney’s fees that would be incurred to pursue the $1,200 arrearage may not be justified. If the client spends $3,000 to $5,000 in attorney’s fees to obtain a child support arrearages judgment against the obligor for less than the amount of the attorney’s fees, at the end of the case the client may regret having filed the case when the arrears amount was still relatively small. We would of course also pursue a judgment for the attorney’s fees incurred to obtain the arrearage judgment, but the judge often will not award a judgment for 100% of the fees that have been incurred.

On the other hand, when an obligor falls into arrears, the obligee (person to whom court-ordered child support is to be paid) sometimes wishes to take him to court immediately to send a message that she will be holding his “feet to the fire” with respect to the obligation. She may want him to understand that if he does not pay, she will take swift court action against him. She may feel that if there is no consequence for the obligor’s nonpayment of support, he will continue to miss payments.There is now no statute of limitations on child support obligations. If the obligee wishes, she can wait years to take the obligor to court to try to collect the arrearages. One recent client of mine waited until her youngest child was almost to graduate from high school before she took action against the father, who had paid little to none of his court-ordered child support for the past seven years. She obtained a judgment against the father for over $105,000.00.

Each case involves unique facts, circumstances, and personalities. Ultimately, after consultation with an experienced family law attorney, the client must decide the proper timing to initiate her child support enforcement case.