What To Do If Your Ex Isn’t Paying Child Support

The stress of your divorce has been catching up with you as of late. Between getting your mental health back in order, setting time aside for yourself, and explaining to your family and friends why your marriage has ended, you just wish this entire process could come to an end already. Not to mention, you also have to prioritize your children.

Explaining your divorce to your children was difficult enough, and now you worry that their chance for success in the future is uncertain because your ex-spouse is neglecting to pay their child support. Your former spouse is adding more strain to the divorce, and they don’t consider how missed child support payments affect their children. 

Child support is essential for the future of your children because it covers a broad range of expenses such as medical care, childcare, education fees, transportation, entertainment, and so much more. Although your ex-spouse might be neglecting their child support payments to get under your skin, they cannot legally get away with this. Utah family court takes child support payments very seriously, and you can hold your former spouse in contempt for disobeying the court’s orders. 

Make Sure You Have a Child Support Order

The first step to making your ex pay their fair share is to have an order signed by a judge that requires the non-custodial parent to make payments. Until your former spouse has a requirement, they don’t legally have to pay child support. Without an official payment requirement, you are relying on the good graces of your ex to pay on their own; this won’t get you very far. If your ex was already mandated by the court to pay child support and they haven’t kept up with their mandate, then your ex is violating a judicial order and it’s time for you to gather the evidence. 

Collect Records That Prove Non-Payment

Gathering proof of payment records shouldn’t be too hard to do because your ex should be paying by either check, money order, or transferring the payment to your bank account. If your ex-spouse is supposed to be paying their child support by either check or money order, go online and pull up records from your bank that proves that the child support payment has not been deposited to your bank account. Specifically, attain the records for the time period in question. Deposits for most banks are listed at the top of each monthly statement, and a quick review of records will prove that child support payments were not made. 

Ask for An Income Withholding Order

If a significant amount of time has passed and you still haven’t heard from your ex-spouse, it’s time to cut them out as the middleman and get the money directly from their employer through an income withholding order. An income withholding order is an approved method to automatically require an employer to deduct a certain amount on a monthly basis from your ex’s pay before their paycheck or direct deposit goes out. This can be done with a simple order executed by the judge, and the process will take 6-8 weeks to complete. 

There’s already a long list of other matters you’re worried about regarding your divorce, and child support should not be one of them. Don’t confront your former spouse on your own, solicit the legal help of an experienced divorce attorney who will hold your former spouse accountable. Contact The Ault Firm today. 

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