CHILD AND SPOUSAL SUPPORT-FAQ’S

 

 

Q: Do you charge for office consultations related to child and spousal support judgment cases:

 

A: No-The Law Offices of Paul P. Young provides no charge office consultations to all persons attempting to collect their child and family support payments. Call us today at 1-866-944-9374

 

Q: How do you charge for your services?

 

A: We provide a no charge office consultation in order to evaluate you case. If we accept your case for collection and you decide to retain our law firm, there is a $75.00 case submission & processing fee. We then enforce your child or spousal support obligation on a percentage and contingency basis-thus we only receive payment for our services when we successfully collect on your child or spousal support judgment. Upon our successful collection on your behalf, we normally charge a fee of 33% after our advanced costs are recovered-these costs are normally less than $150.00.

 

Q: I was divorced many years ago, and my ex-husband never paid the court ordered child or spousal support-Can you still collect from him?

 

A: Most divorce decrees require child support to be paid until the child reaches the legal age of majority, which is usually 18 years old, with exceptions for children under 18 who are married or are legally deemed emancipated minors. Past due child support is a debt that is owed to the custodial parent, and can legally be collected after your children are adults. In a nutshell there is no statute of limitations on child support debt; thus the law allows collection on these obligations many years after the children have grown up and left the family home. In addition, the law allows statutory interest to be collected on top of the past due amounts.

 

Q: I was never married to the father of my kids-Can I still receive child support?

 

A: Yes-Of course your child support order will not be contained in a divorce decree, but mothers who were never married to the father of their children can still get a child support order by instituting a paternity action. You will not likely be able to receive child support for any time period before the support judgment is granted, but you will be able to collect from that point forward. If you are receiving welfare, medical or other public support payments that agency should be able to give you information on establishing paternity of the father, and obtaining a support order. You may also contact your local county district attorneys office for more information. You can find contact phone numbers for these agencies in the white pages of your phone book.

 

Q: Will I have to appear in court?

 

A: Most of the time we are able to successfully complete the required court appearances without our clients needing to attend-however, there are some instances where certain information or testimony is needed that would require you to attend a hearing.

 

Q: Do you also collect current support?

 

A: No-not on purpose. We concentrate our efforts on the collection of past due child and spousal support obligations. Hopefully, after we take necessary actions to collect from the debtor parent or debtor ex-spouse he/she will stay current on their support payments. If we incidentally collect on current support while making our past due collection efforts, we will not charge any fee.

 

Q: What if my local child support agency or the district attorney has been working on collecting my support payments?

 

A: Government agencies charged with child support collection are overburdened with heavy case loads-this can mean that your particular case will not receive the individual attention it needs. This can result in frustrating delays or not receiving your support payments at all. These agencies are very good at getting the relatively compliant “simple” cases to pay their support-but are not as effective with the stubborn or more complicated cases. The Law Offices of Paul P. Young takes the time to understand each case and each support obligor, so that we can develop a collection strategy that will be effective. We understand that a “cookie-cutter” approach to support collection is not the best method.

 

Many times clients choose to have our firm handle the collection of past due support obligations, and have the district attorney collect the current support. Our firm does not charge any fees on money being collected by government agencies. For the record, public child support agencies should be commended for job they do, especially when you consider the limited resources they are given to carry out their mission.

 

Q: Do I receive interest on past due support payments?

 

A: Yes, past due child support payments do accrue interest at a statutory interest rate. For many years past due support judgments accrued interest at a rate of 10%. However, recently the California State Legislature greatly increased the interest rates in some support cases. In many cases accruing interest can eclipse the original support principal amount that is past due.

 

Q: What if I am receiving public support payments?

 

A: Many times when you sign up for public assistance payments, you are required to assign your right to receive (collect) certain child support payments and past due amounts. Often it is these agencies themselves that will move forward in establishing paternity of children, so that they can seek “reimbursement” payments from the father. Current recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) previously known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) are normally required to make such assignments of collection rights. You are welcome to contact our offices for a no charge review of your particular case.

 

Q: Can you collect, if my ex-spouse doesn’t have a job or other assets?

 

A: Probably not right away-If the debtor father or ex-spouse does not have wages to garnish, a bank account to levy, a car to seize, or is otherwise “collection proof”, we will probably not be successful right away in getting you paid. However, you should be aware that there is normally no statute of limitations on support claims, thus you can still collect on your past due support 2,5,10 or 20 years later-and the support judgment is gaining statutory interest at a relatively high rate. Many times a support obligor that owns nothing today will become more responsible and successful later in life, and will acquire assets that can be used to satisfy the past due support obligation.