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You have a child support obligation (“payor”) and now a violation petition, with the threat of jail time, is filed against you by the other parent (“recipient”). How can this be? This is a scenario we see in our firmoften. Sometimes the payor parent is simply unable to pay, but in our practice, we have experienced other reasons why a parent might be unaware of his/her exposure to support arrears and a violation of a court order of child support.We hope to clarify some of the misconceptions regarding a payor’s child support obligation here.

1. I paid my child money directly: If you have a child support order, giving your childmoney directly does not count towards your obligation to the recipient parent. We see this sometimes for children who are of a mature age where a payor parent will provide the childwith money directly and believe that this is satisfying the obligation to support the child.However, while providing a child with funds directly may take certain burdens off the recipient parent,if you are under a court order to pay the other parent, then direct compliance is necessary to avoid being in violation of the court order. If a violation petition is filed against you, you will have to show direct payments to the recipient parent to prove your compliance and avoid a money judgment being issued against you, and even being held in contempt of court.
2. I paid expenses directly on behalf of my child: This is similar to the last scenario where the payor parent may pay for the child’s car lease, car insurance or other needs of that child directly. Again, while this is taking the burden off the recipient parent, a Court is not going to count these payments towards your direct child support obligation, unless your Stipulation and/or Court Order specifically allows you to pay certain expenses in lieu of a direct payment to the other parent.
3. I paid a direct expense for the recipient parent in lieu of direct child support: On a few occasions the payor parent, instead of paying child support may pay, for example, the other parent’s rent, or even permit the other parent to live rent free in their home. While this is again a benefit to the recipientparent and child, the Court will not count this towards a direct child support obligation, absent a Stipulation and Orderbetween the parties agreeing that certain payments to the recipient parent will be off set against the child support obligation. If this is an arrangement that you are considering, it is important to seek legal counsel to draft a legal document to protect your rights.
4. I paid the recipient parent in cash, and I do not have a receipt: This is a very tricky situation. If the recipient parent is denying receipt of the cash payment, and the payor parent does not have proof of the cash payment via a signed receipt fromthe recipient parent, the payor parent will be unable to provehis/her cash child support payments. We always advise our clients that, wherever possible, child support should be paid by check, direct deposit or other documented means to avoid the manipulation of the facts by the recipient parent.
5. The recipient parent agreed to reduce my support: Oftenparties will speak and make an informal agreement to modify or reduce child support for one reason or another. However, if that agreement is not placed in writing, and any underlying Order or Judgment is not modified as well, that agreement, generally, will not be upheld and the original Support Order/Judgment will be enforced, and continue to accrue arrears. This is because the Order was not legally modified.  If this scenario applies to you, it is best to hire legal counsel to draft and file the necessary legal documentation to protect your rights.

If you are not sure how to proceed with your child support obligation, do not guess. Contact a member of Geffner Kersch for guidance to ensure that you are not blindsided years later, when the other parent files a violation petition for non-compliance with support. The outstanding arrears will add up quickly and can be in excess of tens of thousands of dollars by the time a violation petition is filed.