Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: Getting Child Support

It is up to you to enforce the child support award. If you require help, you should retain an attorney.

Daniel Clement

Re: Getting Child Support

You could ask the attorney who handled the divorce for you for advice.

If that is not a viable option, you may wish to file an enforcement petition with the Family Court in your county. Bring a copy of the judgment of divorce with you to give the court. The intake clerk will often be able to help you draft the papers.

You should also ask for a modification of the child support order, which will provide that the support payments must go through the Support Collection Bureau [SCU].

This will make it easier to get enforcement in the future.

Hope this helps.

Re: Getting Child Support

The law requires that the Dept. of Social Services make support collection / enforcement services available to "the public at large".

You can, therefore, go to your local Dept. of Social Serivces [yes. regardless of whether you are on public assistance or possessed of millions of dollars] and ask for assistance to sort this out.

This is NOT necessarily the quickest or least complicated approach - - but it does exist as a useful tool.

Beyond that, it is difficult to offer other suggestions because the "scenario" you present leaves too many questions unanswered about the time-frame & the nature of the original support order, or whether it was a negotiated agreement as part of the divorce ,,, etc.

HOWEVER, none of that matters if you choose to utilize the Dept. of Social Services option AND using that tool is a good way to insure that your future payments are by way of payroll deduction order {if appropriate to the circumstances} AND you can consider the option [option] of having the payments made *through* the State's child support system, which is handy for tracking, although it does have some cumbersome aspects all its own.

Taking action sooner, instead of later, is the better course to follow {and, yes, you certainly CAN go to your local family court & ask for help there to file an appropriate petition}.

Deciding which approach to take depends - - somewhat - - on where you are located: if you are in the metropolitan area, it may be more convenient {in an inconvenient way} to go directly to the Family Court.

Regards, etc.,

J. M. Hayes

>>--> The foregoing amounts to musings and observations based on some years familiarity with the 'day-to-day' operation of the law with regard to the issues involved In The Most General sense; my remarks should not be thought of as "legal advice and counsel" in the formal sense of that phrase, since there is, in fact, no 'attorney / client' relationship existing between us. <-<<

Re: Getting Child Support

You should take this matter directly to your local family court. They can give you paperwork to fill out in order to start a family court support case. NYS allows you to garnish the wages of an ucooperative ex, and I suggest you take advantage of this.