Is Your Ex A Deadbeat

Does your ex continue to defy Court Orders by refusing to pay his or her Court ordered support obligations? If the answer is “yes”, then take him or her back to Court by filing an application to enforce litigant’s rights of the terms of your Matrimonial Settlement Agreement or Court Order. Fortunately, if your child support or alimony award is being paid through the New Jersey Family Support Payment Center (the Probation Department), then the Probation Department has its own enforcement mechanisms. The Probation Department will file its own enforcement applications where a Probation Officer will appear on your behalf before the Court and request that your ex pay a lump sum of money toward his or her arrears by a date certain and/or that an additional sum be added to the weekly/bi-weekly/monthly support obligation until the arrears are paid in full. You do not need to appear at these Probation hearings although you have the right to appear. Even though the Probation Department has its own enforcement hearings, you also have the right to file a Notice of Motion seeking to enforce litigant’s right and requesting that the outstanding arrears be paid immediately. An experienced attorney would be able to help you with the preparation of the enforcement motion and seeing the application to conclusion where a request for counsel fees would be made. [posted by Lynda Picinic, Esq.]