Child Support: Order to Seek Employment?
Thursday / September 06, 2007
In a pilot program proposed for San Mateo County, a judge could order a noncustodial parent to look for work.
This recent news story from California caught my eye. My eyes widened upon reading the article. If signed by the Governor, Senate Bill 523 would allow a judge, when initially setting child support, to order a parent, every two weeks, to submit a list of five different places the parent had applied for work during the previous two weeks. In other words, the court would have this authority not only without child support being in arrears, but at the same time it initially set child support.
How does this come about? According to Senate Bill 523, a "child support enforcement officer" would sign a "declaration" that
"Declaration" is a legal term for a document that usually must be sworn to under oath. The Bill contains no requirement that this declaration be sworn.
In short, if you are getting divorced and your spouse is getting the kids, and if a county bureaucrat thinks you're likely to be a bum, the judge can order you to go apply for five jobs in the next two weeks, then come back and prove you did it.
Ordinarily, if you ignore a court order, the court can find you in contempt and fine or incarcerate you. But Senate Bill 523 expressly states that the court "shall not issue a citation for contempt for the failure of a parent to comply with [such] an order . . . unless the parent has become delinquent in his or her child support payments." In other words, the part of Senate Bill 523 that orders a parent to look for work is unenforceable unless the parent is already behind in child support.
Senate Bill 523 seems like a seedy idea. It presumes that a parent will not support his or her children, and it allows a court to issue an unenforceable, yet onerous, court order.
How does this come about? According to Senate Bill 523, a "child support enforcement officer" would sign a "declaration" that
- The child support enforcement officer believes that, unless ordered by the court to seek employment under this subdivision, the parent would ignore the child support order and would be likely to default on his or her child support obligation.
- The reasons for that belief.
"Declaration" is a legal term for a document that usually must be sworn to under oath. The Bill contains no requirement that this declaration be sworn.
In short, if you are getting divorced and your spouse is getting the kids, and if a county bureaucrat thinks you're likely to be a bum, the judge can order you to go apply for five jobs in the next two weeks, then come back and prove you did it.
Ordinarily, if you ignore a court order, the court can find you in contempt and fine or incarcerate you. But Senate Bill 523 expressly states that the court "shall not issue a citation for contempt for the failure of a parent to comply with [such] an order . . . unless the parent has become delinquent in his or her child support payments." In other words, the part of Senate Bill 523 that orders a parent to look for work is unenforceable unless the parent is already behind in child support.
Senate Bill 523 seems like a seedy idea. It presumes that a parent will not support his or her children, and it allows a court to issue an unenforceable, yet onerous, court order.