Legal Question in Family Law in California

(calif. ) My ex owes me over $20,000.00 in back child support. My daughter is 18 now, so CSS was taking a mere $150.00 per month out of his wages, making it so he'd be caught up by somewhere around Dec. of 2024---ridiculous. He is 62 years old now, and won't be working much longer. He's not real healthy, either, so he may not be long for this world.

Just as I was about to let CSS know he had a 401k with at least $6,000.00 in it and arrange for a QDRO to be prepared, or ask for much higher monthly payments to be garnished, I found out, through the grapevine (not his employer or CSS) that he'd recently been fired! I quickly wrote a notice of adverse claim, to the plan administrator of the company's retirement accounts, notifying them of a pending QDRO for the back child support, and had it delivered via process server. I was hoping that they hadn't already disbursed that $$ to him, and, in my notice, I asked the plan administrator to call me. I haven't heard back yet but it's only been one day. He was fired on Oct.14th, exactly 4 weeks before I got the news. If I was unsuccessful in getting them to freeze his 401k, do I have any other recourse to get the money he owes me? He never sees our daughter and won't speak to me, so I can't do any kind of bargaining with him. He just doesn't give a damn. Does anyone out there know of a rabbit I can pull out of my hat? I don't have a lot of money to spend on private detectives or anything. Is there a cheap way to do a skip trace or something, if the money is no longer in the 401k? Or, how can CSS help, if at all?


Asked on 11/15/13, 1:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

You don't use a QDRO to enforce a child support order. A QDRO is used for dividing a retirement account held by a third person that has a community property interest in it. Child support orders are enforced in the same manner as civil judgments, and additionally by the remedy of contempt.

You should talk to the family law facilitator near you.

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Answered on 11/16/13, 4:29 pm


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