Q: My daughter's father has failed to pay support by the 5th every month since stipulation orders were made over a year ago
States he has to pay by fifth and the arrears have also never been paid. He never sees her (five times last year and he lives 1/2 hour away) and even is being investigated by IRS for claiming her last year which is EIC fraud. Is it contempt of court since he has failed to pay on time and not even this month at all?
A: This may be contempt of court if he is deliberately disobeying the court order. Also, you may want to implement an income assignment so the payment is deducted from his pay and sent to you via the family court registry. You should retain an attorney to help you with this.
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A: More information is needed to answer your question. If he is chronically late with his payments contempt of court could be filed. If he has a real job I would suggest garnishing his wages. If there are defined child support arrears that he is also not paying on, he could be in contempt based on that as well. He could not be held in contempt for fraudulently claiming a child on his taxes unless the orders specifically indicate he cannot claim the child. CRS 14-10-115 does indicate that a party must have paid all child support due and owing in a tax year to be able to claim the income tax dependency exemption for a child. If the orders don't specifically preclude him, again, there would not be contempt. That being said, you may be able to file a motion regarding his wrongful claiming to seek compensation. There may be other ways to deal with your situation but more information is needed. You should consider consulting with a family law attorney.
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