Florida Child Support Enforcement – Use the State or a
Private Attorney?
In divorces with minor
children, it is common for parents to find themselves back in court because one
of the parents is not paying child support as ordered by the Court.
In Florida, you can enforce child support
orders using the State’s Child Support Enforcement services or a private
attorney even if you have not received financial assistance from the state. So what are the advantages and disadvantages
of using the State’s Child Support Enforcement services instead of a private
attorney to collect child support?
Advantages
For parents who are
already financially strapped, these are the advantages of these services:
- no charge to you for
attorney’s fees- If you are the parent who is supposed to receive child support
payments for your children, the service is provided free of charge as the cases
are handled by attorneys hired and paid for by the State.
- the system deals only with child support
collection - no other matters will be addressed at a particular hearing
that is not related to child support.
- the process is (usually) automated – the
State has set up a system to collect your information, prepare the necessary
documents and process your case within the judicial system with the objective
of collecting the child support for you.
Disadvantages
Ironically, the same
advantages of the system can also become its disadvantages:
- can be a long process – because it is
provided free of charge, the service is often overwhelmed with the number of
cases it handles even at the local level; and it is not uncommon for the entire
process to last well over a year.
- contact with the system staff can be
difficult – for the same reason of overcrowding, it may be difficult to contact
the system staff without frequent calls or waiting on hold for long periods of
time.
- you have to go back to family to enforce
other matters- as mentioned above, the CSE division only deals with the
collection of child support in divorces; so if there are other matters that
need to be addressed in court, you have to go back to the family division and
start the process there.
In considering whether
to use the State’s system or a private family lawyer to enforce child support
payments after a divorce, you need to carefully consider whether the
disadvantages of their services are important to you. If so, you may be better off hiring a family
attorney.
Many Florida family lawyers are willing to take
child support cases on a flat fee basis.
If you have other issues besides child support that need to be brought
to the attention of the court, you can probably workout a flat fee arrangement
with the attorney. The additional cost
of using the services of a private family lawyer will most likely pay for itself
in terms of saving time and hassles having to do two separate proceedings.
© 2010 Vivian C.
Rodriguez
Vivian C. Rodriguez is
a Miami divorce
and paternity lawyer. For articles about Florida
family law visit, Articles about Florida Family Law.
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