I drafter a petition to change the law in Maryland from civil to criminal when the child support court order is not being paid. My deadbeat is over $21,000.00 behind, and they refuse to lock him up to enforce the court order. My case worker even suggested that I just drop my case. She also told me it is not a crime to be poor, which I pointed out was not true. If I were unable to support my child, CPS would be there real quick to take my kid away.
Jazan Abdula told me, "We do not put the non-custodial parent in jail, because then they would not be able to work in order to pay the child support."
I explained to her that he already doesn't pay it, and that the only way he will take the court order seriously is to lock him up.
She told me, "Just drop your case. You shouldn't be looking for free money from him."

Is it any wonder why deadbeat parents just don't care about child support?

Here is a link to the petition. You do not have to live in Maryland to sign it. Please take the time to help all of the custodial parents in Maryland get thier court order's for child support enforced to the fullest extent. Thank you all.

[URL=http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/lets-give-our-children-some-hope-and-a-better-standard-of-living

At least if it were a criminal case to not pay child support they could house them with the rest of the jail population instead of having to keep them segregated from the criminal inmates....and a big part of why most places don't lock up deadbeats for being in contempt of court...the jails are already full of people with criminal charges and specific areas designated for civil inmates.
In my county they will not lock up someone for not paying support. Another county I used to live in further South used to lock them up anyway, and had a specific area for civil inmates.....it was a "multi-purpose" room that had no plumbing, was also a storage room for floor buffers and extra cots...and how that county never got sued for that is beyond me. But heck, at least they had the cajones to lock up those that were in contempt of court.

Still, there are a lot of other methods they can use to try to enforce child support, including wage garnishments, taking driver's licenses, business licenses, freezing/emptying bank accounts, property liens etc. and if they don't have those already being enforced on him then they should instead of telling you that you should drop your case....that's just wrong and this worker needs to have her superiors brought into it.

I have done everything to enforce the court order, and get a new case worker. I have written letters to the governor, and my legislator, requesting a new case worker, and enforcement on my case since the past due was a little below $15,000.00, but they have done nothing. Now the Non-custodial parent has filed for a modification to reduce the amount he is ordered to pay each month, so they said I can not even request enforcement until after the court date which is in December.




The total monthly obligation owed is $503.00

The current balance owed for this month is $503.00

The total balance owed is $21,550.57


Does anybody know what the amount of child support owed need to be before they enforce the order with jail time.
This guy has no assets in his name, and doesn't even file his taxes.

So much depends on location....
Some places will not enforce support with jailtime regardless of how much is owed, other places (very few) will do it with very little owed. It's our judicial system already overloaded with criminal matters and little resources left to deal with civil matters.
They will often run the rest of the enforcement options, but as you know if he has no bank accounts, files no taxes, doesn't work a legitimate job to garnish wages etc. that leaves them with little chance of making anything happen.
Yes it's a rock and a hard place type thing, maybe.....just maybe.....the judge will try to make something happen during the modification hearing, be sure to be present for that.

Thank You for the advice. I will be there.

Hi there I am new to this board, but I have been going through what you have been going though with maryland for about 7 years or so,if you are still around send me a message and maybe we can help each other out!
jolynn

That is stupid. I have seen people in Pa and De get arrested for not paying child support! I will do some research for you on Maryland's laws and see what I can come up with.

There should be a process called an order of contempt which would make it so that he would have to go to court and explain to a judge why he didn't pay child support. I would not drop it and I would actually even talk to a lawyer about that lady giving you bad legal advice like that because that is actually illegal for them to do in other states so it may also be illegal in Maryland.

If he owes you over 21K and you said he has to pay about $ 500 per month it means he is 42 months behind, I find it hard to believe that a judge is not going to force him to find a job through a state employment agency or something, you can't go 42 months without working and claiming , as I'm sure he is, that your parents, brothers, uncles support you.
Adrian

Well, I must thank everyone for all of the advice you have given me. I went to the modification hearing, and the non-custodial parent did not show up.
There will be no chance of requesting enforcement until after January in 2008 because the idiot case worker sent a wage lean to a job the ncp hasn't worked at for years (I can only assume she did this in an attempt to make it look like she was doing SOMETHING).
Still I have gotten no child support, no enforcement, an incompetent case worker, and a lot of stress.
Sorry I didn't reply in a timely fasion, but I had to get Christmas for my little guy, so I had to cancel my phone, and internet for a little while.

If anyone knows what I need to do to get this court order enforced, please, share with me.

Leanora,
I am in a similar situation and I have a CSE order in the same county as you, as well as I am equally frustrated. I have a few ideas for you.

If you could give me some tips, I will gladly accept them.

quote:

Originally posted by heather9394:
Leanora,
I am in a similar situation and I have a CSE order in the same county as you, as well as I am equally frustrated. I have a few ideas for you.

That would be great.

Ladies, you don't want to put your email addy's or other personal contact info into open forums. We try to keep all members from including emails, IM usernames etc.....it is much safer that way for everyone.

while most states are changing the language of child support and visitation to a "shared parenting" plan.... how does your plight for a unified system of enforcement stand on this recent movement and how does it plan to unify the different philosophy of child support which varies state to state especially conservative and liberal states?

I am also a single parent with a deadbeat ex-husband who is $17,780 in arrears in the state of Maryland in Montgomery County. I am also very very frustrated with Child Support Enforcement in this jursidiction. I just went to a contempt heraing in October 2007 and he bs'ed around and the hearing was continued until January 11, 2008. Since the last meeting (hearing) the arrers went down and they went back up because he did not pay anything for 6 weeks. I know when we go back to the Child Support office in january he will get no mor ethan a slap on the wrist. I would love to work with you to advocate for mothers like us who have these deadbeat dads who are not being held accountable for paying their child support.