I’m always amazed at the number of people who don’t comply with Court Orders, especially as it relates to child support. The story is always the same. The obligor parent stops paying and/or looses their job, falls behind in their child support obligation, and instead of going back to Court to ask for a modification of the support order, they do nothing.
When the custodial parent, or the Department of Revenue brings them to Court on a contempt action, because now hundreds if not thousands of dollars is owed, they expect a judge to just excuse the current Order in effect and let them go about their merry way.
There is neither remorse that they are literally taking food from their children’s mouths, nor consideration for the fact that a Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued an Order that they are required to comply with. Theirs is an “Oh, well” kind of attitude.
If this is you, listen up. The person saying, “Oh well,” may be the judge when you get sent to jail.
When a person is found in contempt, there is a finding that they have willfully violated a court order. Simply put, it means that a person didn’t do what they were supposed to. The punishment for being found in contempt can range anywhere from an allowance of time to pay what you owe, along with an additional order to pay the custodial parent’s attorneys fees, all the way up to incarceration.
Even a person found in contempt for the first time can be sentenced to jail, and that sentence can be a few days or it can be months. You don’t get to stop and collect $200.00 as you would if life were a Monopoly game, you go directly to jail. Have I made the point?
So what should you do if you find yourself in a situation where you have lost your job or feel that you will not be able to meet your child support obligation for some other reason for the foreseeable future? The appropriate action would be to file a Complaint for Modification, asking the court to reduce the current support order to something you can afford.
Be prepared to open the book which shows your current financial story, what has changed, why the change will be long term, and also be forthcoming with information and documents that prove your claim. Then, even if you are falling behind, any reduction of support can date back to the time the Modification was filed. Not only does this take care of the arrears that continue to build with each passing week, but it also prevents having to defend yourself in a contempt action.
The bottom line here is this. Whether you are a parent involved in the daily activities of your children or not, you have an obligation to help financially support them. Child support money is not for the other parent that you may be angry and resentful towards, but for your children, who need to have food, clothing, and a roof over their head with electricity and heat. Your willful failure to provide this support leads only to further resentment by you, the custodial parent and your child. Thumb your nose at the Court and you may find yourself not only defending yourself in a contempt action, but also with a lot of time to think about why you didn’t file that Modification, from a jail cell.
By: Melissa R. Gillis, Esq.
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