You don’t pay child support, you have arrearage. It may also refer to the possibility of forgetting to pay child support. Your situation may have changed, which will impact your child support payments. There may be a job loss. It can result in a decrease in pay. You must inform the court.
Click here to watch the video on Overview of Support Arrears – Michigan Law
You have the right to adjust child support as necessary if your situation changes. The court can assist you in lowering child support but not in catching up on arrears. Your arrears cannot be addressed retroactively by the court. However, the court has the authority to lower future child support obligations.
What happens if you accumulate child support arrears?
It’s risky to ignore your child support obligations. Whatever your reasons, don’t do it in Michigan. Playing cut-and-mouse with support arrears is a risky game both financially and legally. Arrears refers to past-due child support obligations. A child support payer may have an obligation to the state, a specific person, or both. There will be circumstances when the other parent of your child hasn’t made timely payments of the child support ordered by the court. You can be owed money. You or your child may be receiving public services or did so when child support was due. The other parent of your child will have a financial obligation to the State of Michigan.
The court will ask for justification as to why you shouldn’t be held in contempt. You may be prosecuted with a felony. Both of these scenarios are undesirable, and going to jail is a constant risk. Additional penalties can include license suspension or revocation, fines, putting the payor under the court’s friend’s monitoring, work-release guidelines, and work activity.
A recipient of support may initiate a civil contempt proceeding against a person ordered to pay child support. The Friend of the Court office may also start the same action. After finding a payer in contempt of court in accordance with state law, the court may issue an order that does one or more of the following things:
[ a ] Take money out of your paycheck or other sources of income
[ b ] Impose liens on your real estate or personal property
[ c ] Claim your state and federal tax refunds
[ d ] Suspend your driving, professional, and recreational (hunting/fishing) permits
[ e ] Refusal of a passport application or revocation of passports
[ f ] Start proceedings for contempt, which may result in fines, jail term, and other sanctions
Can you ask for forgiveness for support arrears?
You can request a discharge or forgiveness of your arrears in one of two methods.
[ a ] Submit a form requesting the Friend of the Court (FOC) to dismiss your debt for child support alone owed to the State of Michigan.
[ b ] Submit a motion requesting the court to set up a payment plan for your unpaid debts and a part of the debt forgiven.
Ask for a discharge from the Friend of the Court
Fill out a Request to Discharge State-Owed Debt, Submit it to the Friend of the Court office in the county where your child support order is issued. Only use this if you owe money to the state and not a specific person. Think about it if
[a] You think you have a solid justification for the FOC to release you from your obligation. Or,
[b] You can prove that it would be very difficult for you to pay the loan.
If you are behind on child support in more than one county, you must send one completed form to each FOC office where you are pursuing a discharge of state-owing debt. The FOC will consider your request in determining whether to forgive any of the debt.
File a motion with your local circuit court
If you owe money to the state, a specific person, or both, file an application with the circuit court requesting the judge for a payment schedule and to discharge arrears. You must submit a motion in each of the family court cases where you have arrears in order to ask for a payment plan and debt clearance.
Ask the court to grant you permission to pay the arrears on a regular basis. Commit payments for a specified period of time. The judge should dismiss or forgive the outstanding arrears after.
You should be approaching the court already if you are not able to pay child support. Ask the court for an Arrears Payment Plan. Do not wait for the arrears to accumulate into a huge amount. If approved, the court will determine how much of the arrearage will be forgiven once the Arrears Payment Plan is complete.
Before the judge may approve the payment plan, you must adhere to many conditions. Whether you have an unpaid debt to a person, the state, or both will determine the criteria.
If you owe your ex-spouse child support.
You may file a motion asking the judge to establish a repayment plan for the debt or a discharge of arrears. You can respond and be heard in court once your co-parent receives a copy of the motion. If both co-parents agree and the judge permits it, then you will be given the opportunity to make monthly payments of a specific sum toward the support obligation. If you follow the plan exactly and make all required payments, the judge will discharge (forgive) the remaining debt.
If your ex-spouse agrees to it, the judge will only grant the motion for a payment plan or discharge of arrears in this case. Don’t coerce your ex-spouse into consenting by intimidation, threats, or bullying the discharge of your support arrears. The judge cannot grant the motion if your ex-spouse doesn’t consent of their own free will.
If your ex-spouse concurs, the judge can only grant the motion on the following condition:
[ a ] That you have not purposefully neglected to pay child support, which would explain the debt; and
[ b ] The payment schedule is ideal for you, your children, and your ex-spouse.
You can reply to the other parent’s move using the Response to Motion Regarding Payment Plan/Discharge of Arrears form. To correctly complete, file, and serve the form, adhere to the checklist and instructions provided with it. The guidelines also provide you with information about attending the hearing.
If you owe the state child support.
You can request a discharge of some or all of your arrears from the Friend of the Court if you owe money to the State of Michigan (FOC). The FOC may choose to pardon all or a portion of the debt. The FOC will take into account your strong justifications for the debt discharge as well as how challenging it would be for you to make payments on the debt.
File a motion with the circuit court to establish a repayment plan for a part of the debt and to discharge the remaining arrears. You will have the option to make monthly payments of a specific amount against the debt if the judge permits it. If you finish the payment plan, the judge will dismiss (forgive) the remaining debt.
Your co-parent is not required to respond to the request or motion once all arrears have been paid to the State of Michigan. The FOC or court will not take into account whether the co-parent approves of the payment plan or debt discharge because the money is not owed to them. This kind of action has no bearing on any additional child support payments you owe your co-parent.
If you owe both your ex-spouse and the state child support.
You have debts to the state as well as a specific individual. The judge evaluates each kind of arrear independently. The judge grants only a portion of your motion. You are eligible for a payment plan. You are for one kind of arrear.
An example of a court decision:
You owe $6,000 to the state. You owe $9,000 to a person. You are only eligible for the arrears owed to the state. The judge approves a payment plan for the $6,000. The court gives you a payment schedule for the $9,000 but does not waive any part of the $9,000.
The court may include additional requirements that you must fulfill if the judge approves your payment plan. The potential conditions include:
[ a ] Involvement in a parenting program
[ b ] Counseling on drugs and alcohol
[ c ] Attending anger-management classes or a batterer intervention program
[ d ] Involvement in a labor program
[ c ] Counseling
[ d ] Upholding the terms of your existing support order
After the forgiveness and discharge, what now?
After the court has granted forgiveness and discharge, it will still expect you to comply with the terms of your existing child support order.
You must ask for a new hearing date and give adequate notice after the payment plan is finished. If the judge determines at the hearing that you followed the payment schedule, he or she will discharge your outstanding debt. If you completed the majority of the required payments but not all of them, the judge will decide whether to dismiss some or all of the outstanding arrears.
You are still obligated to make any additional child support payments (not debt) that are accruing in your legal case. Even if the judge gave you a payment plan and discharged some of your arrears.
Submit a motion asking to alter the child support amount if the present amount is too high for you to pay. File as soon as you can if you plan to do this. A change in support cannot be implemented retroactively.
Your child support arrears are forgiven. The judge gave you a payment plan. The judge discharged some of your arrears. You are, however, still obligated to make child support payments (not debt) that are accruing in your legal case.
What can you do with that accruing child support?
Submit a motion asking to alter the child support amount if the present amount is too high for you to pay. File as soon as you can. Just as we mentioned previously, a change in support cannot be implemented retroactively.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.