Over Three Decades Of Resolving Family Law Issues In Montana

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What happens if you don’t pay child support in Montana?

On Behalf of | Apr 18, 2021 | Child Support |

All Montana children are given the right to receive both emotional and financial support from both of their parents. Even if those parents no longer live together, both parents have a responsibility to the child. In most cases, a judge will issue an order for the non-custodial parent to pay child support to help the financial and emotional needs of the children.

How is child support collected?

When a family law court orders a particular parent to pay child support for a child, the payments will typically be collected via income withholding. This means that the parent’s employer will specifically hold a portion of his or her wages and directly give it to the custodial parent who is owed the funds. In some rare cases, income withholding may not be available from a parent’s wages, such as in the case of self-employment.

What happens if a parent doesn’t make child support payments?

If a parent that is ordered by a court of law to make child support payments chooses not to, there are many methods that the Montana Child Support Services Division (CSSD) will utilize to get the money. First, it will report the lapse of child support payments to credit-reporting agencies. This will have a negative effect on the parent’s credit report and his or her eligibility to get credit in the future.

CSSD will also place a six-month hold on the parent’s state and federal tax refunds. If this doesn’t work, the service will proceed to place a lien against any property that is owned by the parent who owes child support payments. CSSD can even suspend the parent’s driver’s license, recreational license, and even passport.

The state of Montana takes child support payments very seriously. In the event that a parent is ordered by a court of law to pay child support payments and he or she lapses in doing so, CSSD has a variety of methods that it can use to get the money from the defaulter. If you’re currently owed back child support payments, it can be helpful to hire an attorney to assist in speeding up the process of getting your money.