If you are awarded alimony, child support or attorney’s fees by a Judge or agree to certain support payments in a negotiated Marital Settlement Agreement often these monetary provisions are enforceable in a myriad of ways. If you have not received alimony or child support as required by Court order then your spouse could be subject to the scrutiny of the Court in determining if the payments could have been made but were not.
When we are retained to enforce payment of alimony or child support on your behalf we seek to collect the money owed, either by collecting it in the form of taking assets or income owned by the non paying spouse, or by invoking the contempt power of the Court. In those cases not involving property rights, contempt is a powerful tool we are skilled at invoking to force payments owed to our client. In addition to other remedies, such as Internal Revenue tax refund intercepts we have successfully sought and obtained orders incarcerating the non paying spouse. We have successfully been appointed by the Court in indirect criminal contempt proceedings to prosecute a spouse who willfully failed to pay support, wherein the Court incarcerated the non paying spouse for 365 days.
In those situations when a spouse claims not to have the income to continue to pay support we often employ forensic accountants in order to ferrite out their actual income from their claimed income and make sure the non paying spouse pays you before their other creditors. The amounts owed plus interest can be collected by obtaining income withholding orders, garnishment and other Court imposed sanctions. We understand how frustrating it is when the support you rely on to pay yours and your children’s daily expenses is not being paid timely or in full. The Court system is complicated and we seek to expedite a resolution of your situation by obtaining a hearing for you before a Hearing Officer or General Magistrate who then make finding of facts and recommendations to the Judge.
Occasionally in family law a spouse is complying with alimony or child support order in full or as best as possible based on substantially changed circumstances. We have defended client’s successfully against false and inaccurate allegations of nonpayment by a spouse in enforcement and contempt proceedings. We recently obtained a successful ruling on behalf of client sanctioning the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for alleging our client owed back child support. The Judge ruled the State Attorney’s Office as well as the spouse who made the allegations were both liable to our client for attorney’s fees and costs. (link to article)