Consistent child support payments are not only important for the parent receiving the payments, but they are also crucial for the health and wellbeing of the child. Child support payments help ensure a child’s basic needs are met, and missed payments can seriously impact their lives.
When court-ordered child support payments are missed in Texas, the Office of the Attorney General can take a number of actions to enforce the order, including license suspension, credit reporting, passport denial and more.
If you are a parent who is owed overdue child support payments, there are several steps you can take to resolve the issue, and hiring an attorney is the best way to make sure you are taking the correct action at the correct time.
When attempting to collect overdue child support, it is important to track and write down each missed payment or partial payment. Your attorney will need this information to file a petition or motion for enforcement of child support. Parents who are missing payments should jot down exactly what was missed.
From that point, the next step is to schedule a court appearance to present the request to a judge. The court will review the evidence of missed payments or partial payments and may find the owing parent “in contempt” and order them to pay the amount owed. The judge may also garnish wages—or determine that a certain amount of money be automatically withheld from the owing parent’s paycheck to be put toward child support.
It is important to note that parents can also request reimbursement for the attorney fees required to collect on overdue child support. Unless there is a very good reason for the other parent not to pay, the court will usually order the reimbursement of attorney fees.
At Sandoval Law Firm we understand the stress of dealing with divorce, child custody and domestic violence. Our firm consists of founding attorney Raul Sandoval Jr. and a dedicated support staff. Mr. Sandoval earned his law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law. Since that time, he has been practicing family law in the Austin area, as well as teaching seminars, classes and other forms of professional development.
