When parents separate, affording groceries, child care, and other necessities for their child can be challenging. Child support payments can help unmarried and divorced parents cover child related costs, so it is important to establish an enforceable child support order to ensure regular payments.
If you have a court order and an ex-partner or spouse discontinues support or only makes sporadic payments, there are a few different ways that you can enforce the child support order. The state can help set-up wage withholding (garnishment), impose property liens, intercept tax refunds, or suspend a driver’s license (and more) – whatever it takes to ensure the timely payment of support and recover past due payments from the non-paying spouse or partner.
However, sometimes government agencies are overwhelmed with requests, and a custodial parent in a difficult financial situation cannot afford to wait for something to be done about non-payment of child support. In these cases, a parent may want to seek enforcement to the child support order in court. The court has many tools to compel the payment of child support and, while a parent is in court, they may have other issues to address such as a modification to the parenting time arrangement or other family law issues that can be handled at the same time.
Working with an experienced Illinois family law attorney can ensure that your rights are protected and your needs are addressed as quickly as possible. When you have concerns regarding the enforcement of a child support order or have questions about how you can modify a custody agreement, contact the Libertyville law offices of Schlesinger & Strauss LLC for assistance at 847-680-4970.
