Courts typically determine child support payments by utilizing income records. For individuals who neglect to pay child support, courts are authorized to order wage garnishment. Recently, Charlie Sheen learned that a Los Angeles California Superior Court judge had ordered his former employers to garnish $55,000 per month from his paychecks.
In recent months, there has been massive media attention on Sheen’s disagreements with his former employer. Sheen’s allegedly manic behavior and his public disagreement with studio executives over his pay and his dismissal from the popular show “Two and a Half Men” have turned him into a pop media sensation. Amidst Sheen’s employment struggles, he is also recovering from his tumultuous divorce and difficult child custody battle.
He and his former wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, divorced shortly after he was fired from “Two and a Half Men.”Mueller petitioned the court to have her estranged husband’s wages garnished in light of their constant fighting over the amount of child support he owed. Now, any payments that Warner Brothers makes to the actor will be docked by court order.
Garnishment is a common method courts use to ensure child support payments are made to the parent with primary custody by the non-custodial parent.
It is the hopes that not only will the funds help in any expenses necessary to care for children, but also to provide them an environment as close to what they would experience had their parents relationship not dissolved. California couples that are engaged in child support disagreements may choose to enlist a mediator to help manage difficult proceedings.
Source: ABC News, “Judge orders Sheen wages docked for child support,” 28 June 2011