The following information regarding non-payment of support is brought to you as a public service by the lawyers of the State of Oregon. The material presented is general legal information intended to alert you to possible legal problems and solutions.

If you have an order for spousal or child support and the paying parent has fallen behind in the payments, you may be able to take several legal steps to enforce your rights to the support.

One thing you may do is to ask that the back support be taken directly from the wages of the paying parent. This requires an order issued either by a court or by a child support agency. In support cases handled by a child support agency (either the District Attorney's office or the state Department of Justice), it is almost always the agency that will issue the support order. The agency will not pursue spousal support if it is not also pursuing an award of child support.

Usually, the amount taken from the parent's wages to pay current and retroactive support is 120% of the current support amount, up to a maximum of 50% of the paying parent's income. This means that for a monthly support order of $100, the amount taken from the paycheck will be $120 -- $100 for the current support and $20 (or 20%) for the back support. Once the back support has been paid off, just the amount of the current monthly order would be taken out, again up to a maximum of 50% of the paying parent's income. If only back support is owed, the amount withheld will vary on the circumstances of the case.

Once income withholding is in place, it continues as long as support is owed. If the paying parent changes jobs, the withholding order will "follow" that paying parent to any new job that the child support agency is aware of. If no support agency is handling your case, a lawyer can help you make sure a new employer is given a copy of the withholding order. Like wages, income from worker's compensation and unemployment benefits can also be withheld for current and back support.

The District Attorney's office or the Department of Justice can help you for free to arrange income withholding. If your support is not currently routed through the state, contact the District Attorney's office for this service. Under a new law, if money is being withheld from your paycheck for support payments, these payments must be routed through a state office, even if a support agency is not doing enforcement on your case. A lawyer may also help you arrange this, although you may be responsible for the lawyer's fees and expenses.

In addition withholding the paying parent's wages, license suspension is another option available to you, particularly when the paying parent does not have regular income or employment. If you are owed at least $2,500 in back child support and the other parent has an occupational license, a driver's license, or a hunting or fishing license issued by the state, the District Attorney or Division of Child Support can suspend these licenses unless the paying parent reduces the back support to under $2,500 or agrees to a repayment plan. Only the District Attorney and the Division of Child Support can do these license suspensions or establish a payment plan.

Interception of tax refunds coming to the paying parent is another way to collect back child and spousal support. Again, only the District Attorney and Division of Child Support can use this method.

There are several things that the District Attorney, Division of Child Support, or a lawyer can help you with. One is garnishing the bank account or other sources of money of a paying parent. Placing liens on the real property (the land or buildings) owed by the paying parent is another way, so that you can receive some or all of what is owed to you when the land is sold. Some new laws also create liens on a paying parent's personal property, such as automobiles.

A "contempt of court" matter is something else a support agency or lawyer can help you with. A contempt case requires filing documents with the court to have a hearing. The hearing decides whether the paying parent violated the order to pay support. If the judge finds that the parent willfully disobeyed the support order, a number of sanctions could be imposed against the parent. He or she could be ordered to spend time in jail as punishment, or to pay all or part of the back support by a deadline in order to avoid going to jail.

If your former spouse lives in a different state than you, a law known as "UIFSA" controls some aspects of where and how to recover back support. UIFSA stands for "Uniform Interstate Family Support Act." Depending on your case, legal proceedings might have to be held in the state where the paying parent lives, in order to collect the back support. The child support agency or a lawyer can help you with this, but dealing with other states can be a long process.

Any time you are involved with support enforcement proceedings, you will probably have to state under oath how much money the other parent has paid and how much is still owed to you. It is very important to keep accurate records of all support payments, including the date the payment is made, the amount of the payment, and the form of payment (for example, personal check or money order). When your support case is handled by the District Attorney's office or the Department of Justice, the payments go through the state, which keeps computerized records of the payments. The state agencies automatically begin some enforcement actions based on these records. (Remember that new laws require that all cases with withholding income as the method of payment have those payments routed through the state, even if a support agency is not doing any enforcement on the case). If your support payments go through the state, make sure you know if the child support agency is also doing enforcement for you.

Support enforcement is a complicated and frequently changing area of the law because the federal and state governments are trying to improve collection efforts.

This information is from the Oregon State Bar's Tel-law service, a collection of recorded legal information messages prepared by the lawyers of Oregon. In addition to being online, the Tel-law service is accessible by telephone at 503-620-3000 or toll-free in Oregon only, 1-800-452-4776. A touch tone phone allows direct access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To receive a free Tel-law brochure listing the subjects available call 503-620-0222, ext. 0.