When Illinois parents have ended their relationship, it is important that the support payments be made. If a supporting parent fails to meet his or her obligations based on the agreement, it can cause a host of problems to everyone involved. The parent who is receiving child support could have issues making ends meet because of the failure to pay. The child will be deprived of important financial support. The would-be supporting parent could face penalties. For those who are dealing with these issues, having legal assistance is a must.
For the parent failing to make the payments, child support enforcement has many steps it can take to get the parent to pay. One is to inform consumer reporting agencies and the public of the failure to pay child support. If it is found that the paying parent owes back support – arrears – and it is more than $10,000, if the parent is delinquent for at least three months of what was owed, or has not made the payment of the annual child support fee for three years, the clerk of the relevant court will be ordered to inform the consumer reporting agencies of these issues.
In the same circumstances, the issue can also be revealed by publishing it in a newspaper that is in general circulation in the area in which the parent lives. The name and address can also be published after he or she has been sent a return receipt warning that this step is pending. For the parent who is supposed to be getting the child support payments, it is imperative that there is recourse the state can take to get those payments. The supporting parent will certainly not want consumer reporting agencies to be notified; they will not want to have their name and address published along with reporting them as being delinquent on their child support payments for all to see.
To deal with this situation from either perspective, it is an important step to discuss the case with a lawyer. Perhaps there can be an alternative arrangement or the agreement can be modified. Before it gets to this point, calling a law firm that understands child support enforcement is imperative.