Legal Question in Family Law in California

Child support orders are enforceable, just like regular money judgments. And unlike regular civil money judgments, they do not expire after 10 years, and do not require renewal.

I suggest that you speak to an attorney in your area that handles collection of child support orders in family law matters.

It is not too late to enforce the order at all. There is no limitations on an action to enforce a child support order. You have three options for trying to collect. You can try to enforce it yourself by filing an Order to Show Cause re: Contempt of the support order, and for determination of arrearages. You can hire an attorney to do that for you. Or you can have DCSS enforce it for you. If you choose to do it your self, many Family Law attorneys, myself included, will consider helping you on a "Limited Scope Representation" basis, where you only pay for the specific help you need, but you do the bulk of the work an make the court appearances "pro per." The advantage to doing it yourself with an attorney help, or having an attorney do it, is that it will get much quicker results and if he tries to avoid collection an attorney will move quickly on it for you. The disadvantage is that it costs money and the court may very well order him to reimburse some or all of the fees, but it is not guaranteed. The court has discretion to order whatever it thinks is fair. The advantage to DCSS is that it is free. The disadvantage is that it is slow. They are overworked, and if it becomes difficult to track him down or to collect the money, they tend to put your case at the bottom of the stack and nothing may get done for a long time. They sometimes even just give up and turn it back to you unless you fight for your right to services. If you would like a free half-hour consultation in my Walnut Creek office to discuss the options more thoroughly, feel free to contact me.