If your former spouse has fallen behind, either in alimony or child support payments, there are several legal steps you may take to enforce your rights to those payments which the court has awarded to you.

In order to enforce your child support or alimony, you can go to the office of the court clerk in the court where child support was ordered and request that the clerk issue a garnishment against the supporting parent's wages. Make certain that you have complete information on the supporter's place of employment and address as well as his or her Social Security number. If the supporter is at least one month behind in payments, the court will send out a garnishment to the employer and the support amount will be taken out of the supporter's income. You may wish to take into consideration the possibility that the garnishment process may cause the employer to look with disfavor on the garnished employee and look for legitimate reasons to terminate the employee; however, a federal law provides that no person can be fired because of a garnishment.

You may also execute on the supporter's property; in general, a car or a house. However, execution takes a long time and is less fruitful since most cars and houses have mortgages.

Another action you can take is to file a petition for contempt and obtain an order to show cause why the payments are not being made. This will bring the supporter back in front of the court that granted the divorce or in front of the child support referee. You need to have exact addresses and places of where the supporter cans be served with the papers when the petition is filed.

You can file this petition through the child support agency of the juvenile court for the county in which you live at no cost, or you can have a private attorney do the job for you. The supporter can be placed in jail for nonsupport if the judge finds that he or she willfully chose not to pay the support. You can also get an order for the amount of the support which was not paid, which is called an arrearage. Additionally, you may ask the court to order that future child support or alimony be paid directly to you by the employer through a wage assignment order. A statute provides that this is the appropriate way for child support to be paid and the court may elect to use this payment method for alimony as well, particularly if there has been a previous failure to comply with timely payment of the alimony.

If the supporter has moved out of this area, you need to file a petition using the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act called "URESA." The local child support agency will send the petition to an office of the city where the supporter lives, and a court action will be filed against that person. Again, is it important to have the exact addresses and, if known, the employer as well as the supporter's Social Security number for tracing. This is a lengthy process, so you need to start it as soon as possible. All people are eligible for IV-D services, regardless of their income. You do not have to be receiving welfare benefits to be eligible. You can also go to IV-D and file and Internal Revenue Service intercept which will take any refund due the supporter from income tax for payment of child support arrearages. This must be done by June 30th for that particular tax year.

It is best if you can calculate exactly how much money the supporter owes you. You can do this by showing month by month the amount of support he or she owes and multiplying that by twelve for the year. If the court order states a weekly amount, you multiply the weekly amount by 4.3 weeks in order to get a monthly amount, as using four weeks will be incorrect because there are some months with five weeks. Try to be accurate in your records since you will have to swear under oath that your figures are correct.

You can also file criminal sanctions against the supporter for nonsupport. To do so, you would go to the criminal court clerk and/or the prosecutor's office and request that they file warrants for nonsupport.

Return to Family Law Topics
Return to LawBytes Main Topics

The information available through TBALink LawBytes is basic legal information and is not a substitute for legal advice. LawBytes is provided by the Tennessee Bar Association as a public service and for general information only. It should not be considered legal advice. You should consult your attorney if you have questions concerning any specific situation. If you do not have an attorney, may we suggest that you contact your local bar association's referral service. The topics covered through TBALink LawBytes will provide basic information and should make it easier for someone with a problem to decide whether they need professional help from a lawyer or if another agency could provide them with assistance.