How The Court Enforces A Support Order In New York?

In this article you will learn about:

• What measures the court will go to if a parent violates their support order.
• The most situations where a support order is violated.

 What Will New York Courts Do If Administrative Remedies Are Not Effective To Enforce A Support Order?

The court can do many things through the violation of a support order. Administrative remedies usually constitute things like the Support Collection Unit attempting to garnish wages, suspended licenses, or bank seizures. If those administrative remedies do not prove successful, then the court has a variety of other options to enforce a support order. If, for instance, the person changed jobs, they can direct a new income garnishment to be issued. Additionally, if the person lost their job can’t find a new one the court now has the power to order them into a jobs program. This (among other things) would certify to the court that they are making an earnest effort to look for work.

Another thing that the court can do is issue a money judgment that would accrue 9% interest on the arrears, which is a relatively high-interest rate. This encourages the person who violates their support order to pay the money owed faster by putting it on a series of credit cards. This is because most credit cards do not charge 9% interest, and if they know the support order is charging them 9% interest on their payments, then it makes more fiscal sense to start the payments on a credit card.

In addition to these things, the Family Court also has the ability to put the person in violation of their support payments on probation and or put in jail. There are many different scenarios that can occur when a person goes to jail for a support order violation. They can be put in jail for up to six months consecutively (which is the top penalty), or they could be put in jail for certain days of the week (for example, weekends only). The order would have to be very specific about these terms, and often, if the person did not report to jail on their specified day, then an arrest warrant would go out for them. If this occurs, the person would most likely go to jail for the full six consecutive months.

Consider another situation where a violation petition is filed, and the non-custodial parent rectifies their payments by the time of the trial on the violation case. The court can implement what’s called “an undertaking”, which is put in place in light of various past violations. If this is the case, they will order that parent to set money aside in an escrow account to ensure that the custodial parent would be able to have access to that account until they are able to get back into court and rectify the issue. The form for an undertaking may be found here: https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/FORMS/familycourt/pdfs/4-5a.pdf.

For more information on Violation of A Support Order In New York, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (347) 797-1188 | (914) 362-3080 today.