1. Wage Garnishment Required by Law in Child Support Cases. In Arizona child support cases, judges are required by law to issue wage garnishments to collect the child support. A.R.S. Sections 25-323.A. and 25-504.A. The official, statutory term used to describe a wage garnishment for child support is “order of assignment.” Id. The court assigns to the person entitled to receive support the portion of the wages of the person ordered to pay support that is necessary to satisfy the amount of child support ordered by the court. These orders of assignment are also sometimes referred to as “income withholding orders.”
2. Garnishment Optional in Spousal Maintenance (Alimony) Cases. The statutes state that in child support cases, the court “shall” issue an order of assignment. Id. With respect to spousal maintenance (alimony) obligations, however, orders of assignment are optional. The statutes state that the court “may” issue an order of assignment. Id. In my experience, if the person entitled to receive spousal maintenance wants it to be paid by order of assignment, the court will issue the order. If the parties agree to payment of spousal maintenance without an order of assignment, the court will not issue the order of assignment. In child support cases, by contrast, the court must, by law, issue an order of assignment even if neither party wants the child support to be paid by wage assignment.
3. Wages Garnished for Support are Sent to Clearinghouse. In simple terms, an order of assignment or income withholding order requires an employer to withhold from an employee’s wages the amount of support that employee has been ordered to pay to the other parent of the employee’s child or to the employee’s ex-spouse. The employer is ordered to pay the withheld wages to the Support Payment Clearinghouse (“Clearinghouse”). The withheld wages are NOT paid directly to the person entitled to receive the support. The Clearinghouse is essentially a court department charged with receiving and disbursing support payments. The Clearinghouse receives the payment, deposits the check in its account, and after the check clears, the Clearinghouse issues a separate check to the person entitled to receive support. The Clearinghouse also keeps records of all payments received and disbursed.
4. Ineffective Wage Garnishments do NOT Relieve Support Obligations. For various reasons, some orders of assignment are ineffective or only partially effective. For example, an order of assignment to a self-employed person who controls his own payroll may not result in any support being paid to the Clearinghouse by wage assignment. The self-employed person may simply ignore the wage assignment. Another example is when an employer is limited by federal law as to the amount of an employee’s wages the employer may garnish (generally not more than 50% of an employee’s disposable earnings may be garnished). In such cases, the person obligated to pay support is not relieved of any part of his obligation to pay support. Rather, the person must make payments directly to the Clearinghouse to insure that his full support obligation is paid each month. For example, if the person has been ordered to pay $1,000 per month but only $700 is taken/paid by wage assignment, the person must pay an additional $300 directly to the Clearinghouse to fully satisfy his obligation.
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