Enforcing Child Support in Pennsylvania: Remedies for Non-Payment and High-Profile Cases

Child Support Orders are important directives which mandate the payment of monies to a child until they are age 18 and have graduated from high school. Child support may include private school tuition, preschool and daycare costs, extracurricular activities and unreimbursed medical expenses. But what if one parent doesn’t pay the child support as directed? A parent receiving child support has many remedies available to collect unpaid child support.

Recently in the news, warrants were issues to former NFL player, Adriean Peterson, who had failed to appear in court and pay court ordered child support. In one of the cases against Peterson, a judge signed a Qualified Domestic Relations Order for the child to receive a portion of Peterson’s NFL retirement benefits.

In Pennsylvania, a parent has many remedies to collect child support including a Qualified Domestic Relations Order which directs payments from a qualified pension or retirement fund. If a parent proves to the court the nonpaying spouse willfully failed to pay child support despite having the ability to pay, the payor spouse may be held in contempt. Additional remedies include, incarceration up to six (6) months, a fine and probation. Further if the court also determines that the payor lacked good cause for failing to pay child support timely, the court may impose costs and reasonable attorney’s fees incurred to enforce the support order.

Overdue support is also an automatic lien on real estate within the county in which the support is ordered. Payors who are found in willful violation of the support order may also have the bank account seized, tax refunds intercepted, and their license suspended.

Remedies for failure to pay child support in Pennsylvania are all encompassing and if the payee successfully shows the court the payor has willfully violated a child support order despite having the ability to pay, the court will vigorously enforce.