Lee Ann McCabe-Chiacchio, Esq.

After divorce or separation, parents have an equal obligation to provide emotional and financial support to their children.  The law cannot force parents to provide emotional support to their children.  However, it can compel parents to provide the financial support that they are obligated to provide and which their children have a right to receive.

Child support belongs to children.  Neither parent can waive the other’s obligation to pay it.  Moreover, the State of New Jersey takes child support very seriously.  Two key New Jersey agencies helping parents deal with child support issues are the Administrative Office of the Courts, Probation Services, and the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development (DFD).

In addition to encouraging parents to provide emotional support to their children, the DFD provides information, at www.njchildsupport.org, to parents about how it assists in the enforcement of court-ordered child support.  The DFD has a wide array of enforcement tools available, for example:

• Income withholding
• Credit reporting
• Lottery prize intercept
• Tax fund offset
• Seizure of assets
• License suspension
• Passport denial

There are additional enforcement mechanisms available.  For more information, please visit the website.

Utilizing Probation Services to monitor a child support order, in our view, is the best way for parents to ensure regular child support payments.  The amount of child support that each parent must contribute is determined through the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines, which can be found at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us, under the heading “Legal Reference Desk.”  Once a child support order is established by the court, Probation Services monitors it and collects the money owed via a computer-automated collection system.  If a parent, referred to as the “obligor”, should fall into arrears for a given period of time, the automated system then triggers the enforcement tools that are required by law, including, if necessary, the arrest and detention of the delinquent obligor.

If a parent, who has primary-residential custody of his or her children, does not elect to have child support made payable through Probation Services at the time the child-support order is established by the court, the child-support order will not be automatically enforced if the obligor does not make his or her child-support payments. The lack of enforcement of the order will, of course, delay the recipient parent, known as the “obligee”,  from obtaining the child support due to the children because the obligee would first have to initiate  an enforcement action in order to begin the enforcement process.  Another important aspect of Probation Services monitoring a child support order is that the amount of child support will automatically be adjusted on a periodic basis to reflect increases in the cost of living, referred to as a “COLA” adjustment.

We encourage you to visit the web sites mentioned in this article so that you can arm yourself with information that can help you to ensure that your children are provided with the financial support that they have a right to enjoy.

Lee Ann McCabe-Chiacchio, Esq. has more than 16 years experience as a Family Law attorney.  Ms. Chiacchio is an active member of the New Jersey Bar Association, volunteers her time with various organizations and advocates for the rights of children.  Ms. Chiacchio received the Martin S. Goldin Family Law Award for Excellence in Family Law.  Michael P. Chiacchio joined the Law Firm of Lee Ann McCabe-Chiacchio in April.  The firm is now known as Chiacchio & Chiacchio, LLC.  Although we will continue to focus primarily on family law issues, Mr. Chiacchio also handles municipal court matters.

Michael P. Chiacchio served as a Deputy Attorney General from 2003 until 2007.   Mr. Chiacchio worked for Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman practicing in the areas of Employment and Labor Law.  Mr. Chiacchio remains affiliated with Zazzali and is now a partner at Chiacchio & Chiacchio, LLC.