Get the Support Your Child Deserves
One of the biggest challenges facing parents today is ensuring that their children have access to the basic necessities of life. This is hard enough in two-parent households but can be exceedingly difficult for single parents. When a child goes without the support of a parent, studies show negative life outcomes across a whole variety of metrics are more likely.
If you’re spending all your time meeting your child’s economic needs, you’re less able to meet all their emotional needs – being at sports practice, helping with their homework, having dinner with them, and being around them at home. Whether you’ve gone through a breakup or a divorce, if you’re the child’s primary caretaker, the other parent must pay you child support. That way, you can fully focus on being the parent your child deserves.
If you are owed child support in Oklahoma, a Claremore child support collection attorney can assist you in getting the money you need to care for your child.
How Do I Collect Back Child Support in Oklahoma?
First, parents may appear in court (on their own or with the assistance of an Oklahoma family lawyer) and request that a judge enforce a child support order and issue other orders designed to collect payments. As an alternative, parents can seek assistance from Oklahoma Child Support Services.
However, the local Human Service Centers are often overworked, underfunded, and slow-moving due to bureaucratic inertia. A Claremore child support attorney can give your case the individual attention it needs, allowing you to spend less time in government offices and more time at home with your child.
Child Support Enforcement Methods
Failure to obey a court order to pay child support can lead to a charge of contempt of court, which brings with it fines of up to $500 and possible jail time of between 30 days and 6 months.
Other enforcement methods include:
- Wage Garnishment – The Oklahoma Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) may garnish the non-custodial parent’s income or financial accounts, retirement or disability benefits, or lottery winnings.
- Bank Account Attachment or Property Lien- DHS may take funds from financial accounts and attach liens to property.
- Income Tax Interception – DHS can intercept federal and state income tax rebates and use the money to pay child support obligations.
- Suspension of Driving Privileges – The driver’s license of the non-custodial parent may be may be suspended or revoked over past-due payments.
- Passport Suspension – Passports may be refused, suspended, or restricted when the non-custodial parent owes more than $5000 in child support that’s past due.
Any one of these methods can be obtained with the help of a good family law attorney in Oklahoma.
An Oklahoma child support collection attorney can also explain these possible consequences to the non-custodial parent.
Initial Consultation With a Child Support Lawyer in Oklahoma
Childhood is a brief but immensely consequential period in a person’s life. Children who enjoy stable financial support are more likely to achieve positive life outcomes as adults, such as completing college and starting stable families of their own. If you are owed child support in Oklahoma, call Wirth Law Office – Claremore at 918-879-1681 today to schedule ainitial strategy session with a Claremore child support collection lawyer. The question form is located at the top right corner of this page. One of our child support attorneys in Rogers County will get back to you promptly.
