From July 15-17, the Sheriff’s Association of New Jersey made its sixth annual child support warrant sweep, going out into different communities to pick up parents that have not paid their child support. In this year’s sweep, 760 parents were apprehended. The sweep was designed to pick up both non-custodial parents who have warrants for non-payment of court-ordered child support and parents who failed to appear at hearings to establish support in the first place.
The 760 parents collected in the sweep owed approximately $14.8 million in unpaid child support. The sweep collected just under $131,000. Seven of the 21 counties involved in the sweep provided statistics showing amounts collected and owed. Of those counties, the highest amount of unpaid support was in Camden County, with an estimated $1,173,192 owed by 80 delinquent parents. Camden also had the highest number of outstanding warrants of those counties that reported. Of that amount, officials collected just over $10,000, a small fraction of the total. In Burlington County, a mere $140 was collected out of $612,143.53 owed by 30 parents. In contrast, Cape May County obtained more than $5,000 on 23 warrants.
The New Jersey Office of Child Support Services assisted in coordinating the sweep. The agency praised both SAJ and the judicial system for their assistance in collecting unpaid support for the parents and children that need it.
When a parent is legitimately unable to pay child support, a family law attorney may be able to help get the amount lowered before arrearages and interest pile up. It may be possible to negotiate a resolution with the other parent or go back to court to seek a modification of the original order.
Source: NJ.com, “South Jersey sheriff’s departments nab 760 in child support sweep“, Spencer Kent, July 19, 2014
