As many of our readers in California know, child support payments are mandatory when they are ordered. When the non-custodial parent of a child fails to pay the child support that they owe, the result can be a financial hardship on the custodial parent working to raise the kids. In addition to this strain, the non-paying parent could face penalties for their actions that include fines and jail time.
In one recent case that California readers may find interesting, a man who was found to have failed to pay his child support payments was given a unique penalty. The judge in his case ordered that he get a job and a place to live. This, the court held, would help him make the child support payments that he owed the mother of his child.
In addition, the man was placed on probation after being charged with felony failure to pay child support. He must now make the $1,062 payments each month or face additional jail time and penalties. In total he was found to owe more than $60,000 in back payments.
The man in this case suffered penalties because of his failure to make child support cases. In some situations non-custodial parents may find child support payments difficult to pay each month. When that is the case, they can, in some cases, seek to modify the amount that is owed. Though this can be a challenge and the rules for modification can be confusing to some, the effort may be worth it for a non-custodial parent who has suffered a financial setback that makes child support payments difficult to make.
Source: Sturgis Journal, “Homeless dad ordered to get a job, start paying child support debt,” Nov. 30, 2012