Florida is a state that sincerely cares about the welfare of its children. In fact, the words “In the best interest of the child” are the focus point in Florida Statutes regarding minor children, especially when it comes to dissolution of marriage (divorce) involving minor children and child support. of children, whether the parents have ever been married. each other or not. Once a court has ordered child support to be paid (either by the father or by the mother), there is no way to defuse this order without consequences to the late parent. If the paying party is in default, there are definite legal steps that can be taken and if the defaulting party does not comply, there will be serious consequences.
When this is not possible, usually for financial reasons, the Florida Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement will handle the case, do the legal work on the case, and go to court before the judge. Unfortunately, this approach has drawbacks, as there are often more than 1,000 people in need of this assistance at any given time, so it will take many months before a case using this method is heard. In addition, the party who needs help will not be able to contact the lawyer who will represent them until the day of the court hearing, which will not allow much time to share personal information useful to the case.
A contempt motion is filed with the court to submit the amount owed. Once the child support arrears case is brought before the judge, you will be ordered to pay the amount owed and usually court costs as well. If this is not done in the time ordered by the judge, there are several ways the court will handle the delinquent parent until the money owed is paid, at least in part.
1. Intercept the federal income tax refund owed to the offending parent and give it to the other parent to help reduce what is owed.
2. Cancel the passport of the parent in default until the full amount is paid.
3. Garnish the bank accounts of the non-paying parent until the money owed is paid.
4. Suspend the delinquent parent’s driver’s license, tags, and automobile registration until at least a portion of the amount owed is paid.
5. In serious cases, usually when the offending parent does not even try to pay what they owe, that parent will be jailed for up to 179 days, or until a substantial portion of the money owed is paid.
If you are considering trying to avoid paying some or all of your court-ordered alimony in the state of Florida, don’t! If you find, for good reason, that your child support payments are too much for you to handle, instead of not paying, go back to court for a post-judgment modification. This is where a judge will listen carefully to your concerns and work with you to best award the appropriate child support for your individual situation.