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Get Help To Enforce Child Support

The Morristown law office of Laufer, Dalena, Jensen, Bradley & Doran, LLC, has extensive experience helping clients across Madison, Parsippany, Roxbury and the greater Morris County area to successfully enforce and receive payment for their existing child support agreements.

When you sign a child support agreement with your ex, you are ensuring the financial stability and security of your children. Child support is calculated very precisely in New Jersey, and when you are not receiving regular payments, it can cause a great deal of strain to the livelihood and future of your children. Luckily when this happens, with the help of your Morris County child support enforcement attorney you can petition the courts to intervene, and they have a great deal of power and authority to take the actions necessary for securing you the support you need for your children.

Practicing exclusively family law, the law office of Laufer, Dalena, Jensen, Bradley & Doran, LLC, is well-suited to helping you with any family law issues you may have, including child custody arrangements, child support settlements and child support enforcement. We can help you file and present the best possible case to the courts in order to ensure that you receive the support payments you are counting on in a timely and regular manner. Contact us today for a free and confidential consultation regarding your child support enforcement issue.

Direct And Indirect Child Support Payment Attorneys In Morris Township, New Jersey

There are two different methods for establishing child support payments during the initial divorce, and depending which method you have in place will affect your child support enforcement options. If at the time of your divorce you believe that you may have difficulty receiving regular child support payments from your spouse, it is possible that your child support agreement is written so that your spouse makes his support payments to the Child Support Probation Department. Known as indirect child support, the probation department will track what child support payments are made and when, and should the payer fall behind on payments, a probation officer will take steps to enforce the existing child support order.

Most child support agreements, however, are written to be direct payments. In a direct payment agreement, the payer makes payments directly to the receiver of child support, and the court has no knowledge of whether or not the payments are being made or are regular. If you are receiving child support payments directly, and your ex is not living up to their end of the deal, your Randolph child support enforcement lawyer can help you make the courts aware of your situation, and begin taking steps to ensure payments are made. Continue reading below for more details.

How New Jersey Courts Enforce Direct Child Support Payments

If you are not receiving your direct child support payments, you and your Montville child support enforcement attorney will file documents alerting the courts to your situation. Once the courts have determined your assertions to be true, they have a number of options at their disposal for ensuring that arrears (arrears refers to the outstanding amount owed) payments are made, and you begin receiving your agreed-upon regular child support payments. These options include:

  • Requiring regular payment of arrears — The most common solution courts will take on an initial complaint is to attach periodic arrears payment to your regular payment expectation. So, if you are currently owed $1,000, the courts may order your ex to pay an additional $100 per payment until the arrears amount has been paid in full. Harsher measures may be taken after this initial measure fails to resolve the issue.
  • Attaching arrearages to properties or accounts — The court will calculate the total amount of arrears (the amount you are currently due), and attach that amount to an asset owned by the payer, such as a home or a bank account. They will also generally apply an interest rate to the arrears so that if you cannot immediately collect on those assets, your time lost without support payments will eventually be accounted for.
  • Suspension of driver’s license or occupational license — The court has the authority to suspend the payer’s driver’s license or any professional licenses they may have (for example a license to practice law).
  • Monetary fines — The courts can level additional fines against an individual failing to pay child support
  • Incarceration — If the payer continually refuses to pay child support, they may be incarcerated, generally for no more than two to three days at a time. The court will specify an amount that, upon payment, releases them from their current period of incarceration.
  • Issue a warrant for arrest — This commonly taken action is an encouragement for the payer to continue to make regular payments. Even if the payer makes one payment, but if they have historically proven to be unreliable, the court will issue a “two-week warrant status,” meaning that should the payer miss two consecutive weeks of child support payments, a warrant will be issued for their arrest.
  • Any other appropriate equitable remedy — Each case is unique, and may require unique solutions. This authority allows the courts to take any additional actions it believes is appropriate for each individual case.

Contact Our Montville Child Support Enforcement Attorneys Today

Whether you are seeking enforcement of direct child support payments or indirect, it is important that you have experienced legal counsel at your side to ensure you follow the exact steps necessary to filing for and receiving judgment on late child support payments. Your attorney can help you draft and file the necessary documents, present them to the courts in the proper manner and make sure you receive the judgment necessary to your unique situation.

At the Morristown law office of Laufer, Dalena, Jensen, Bradley & Doran, LLC, our attorneys have extensive experience drafting, modifying and enforcing child support agreements of all kinds. Our family law team features many members regularly nominated for inclusion to the Super Lawyers list as it relates to family law, signifying their high degree of professional achievement and peer recognition. For a complete list of our attorneys and their years of inclusion to the Super Lawyers/Rising Stars lists, feel free to view our attorney profiles or the section below.

If you are concerned about enforcing your existing child support order, our attorneys are ready to speak with you anytime in a free and confidential consultation. To speak with one of our highly rated attorneys today, contact us online or through our Morristown office at 973-975-4043.