My husband has Sole Custody of his two children and we live in Texas. The NM has a Court Order for Child Support from Kentucky that went into effect on January 23, 2009 but stated that Support was to begin being paid from November 2009. In the Order, it states that she is to pay a regular monthly obligation plus $50 each month toward the arrearage amount. This Support Order was initiated by The Attorney General of the State of Texas and is enforced by them as well. The State of Kentucky collects and disburses the check to Texas and they send it to my husband. This case was also a Wage Withholding Case and was sent to her employer in Kentucky for garnishment from her paycheck every two weeks (which is her pay schedule).

To date we have received $400 which were sent by way of personal payments to the DCSE in Ky. instead of Wage Withholding. Last week I spoke with the caseworker in Ky. and she said that the employer had contacted them regarding the support and said that she "does not work enough for us to take out anything". I then asked what we could do to enforce the Support Order and was told how to go about doing so. I contacted Texas and they sent a transmittal to Ky. to request enforcement immediately. I was then told by Ky. that there would be a hearing date set for Criminal Court.

Our attorney in Ky. told me that basically what will happen is that she will be found Guilty because the State will have their evidence of non payment in the Court on that day. The courts sometimes give the Non Paying Parent 6 weeks time in which to make all of the payments and "catch up" before imposing any other punishments on that parent.

My question is this: Does anyone know what the Kentucky Statute is on willful Non Payment of Child Support?? In other terms, what could she be looking at as far as punishments? She owes somewhere in the ballpark of $3000 in arrears at this time. I know that I had read somewhere that the amount that determines whether or not it is a Misdemeanor or Felony is $1000 in Kentucky but am not sure. If anyone has any info, suggested websites or advice it is very welcome! Thanks in advance for your time!

My husband has Sole Custody of his two children and we live in Texas. The NM has a Court Order for Child Support from Kentucky that went into effect on January 23, 2009 but stated that Support was to begin being paid from November 2009. In the Order, it states that she is to pay a regular monthly obligation plus $50 each month toward the arrearage amount. This Support Order was initiated by The Attorney General of the State of Texas and is enforced by them as well. The State of Kentucky collects and disburses the check to Texas and they send it to my husband. This case was also a Wage Withholding Case and was sent to her employer in Kentucky for garnishment from her paycheck every two weeks (which is her pay schedule).

To date we have received $400 which were sent by way of personal payments to the DCSE in Ky. instead of Wage Withholding. Last week I spoke with the caseworker in Ky. and she said that the employer had contacted them regarding the support and said that she "does not work enough for us to take out anything". I then asked what we could do to enforce the Support Order and was told how to go about doing so. I contacted Texas and they sent a transmittal to Ky. to request enforcement immediately. I was then told by Ky. that there would be a hearing date set for Criminal Court.

Our attorney in Ky. told me that basically what will happen is that she will be found Guilty because the State will have their evidence of non payment in the Court on that day. The courts sometimes give the Non Paying Parent 6 weeks time in which to make all of the payments and "catch up" before imposing any other punishments on that parent.

My question is this: Does anyone know what the Kentucky Statute is on willful Non Payment of Child Support?? In other terms, what could she be looking at as far as punishments? She owes somewhere in the ballpark of $3000 in arrears at this time. I know that I had read somewhere that the amount that determines whether or not it is a Misdemeanor or Felony is $1000 in Kentucky but am not sure. If anyone has any info, suggested websites or advice it is very welcome! Thanks in advance for your time!

Is his ex not earning ANY money?
I ask because the employer is wrong. Although the Consumer Credit Protection Act limits the amount that can be garnished, the max is anywhere from 50% to 65%, not a dollar amount. In other words if an obligor were to earn only $10.00, the employer would have to garnish at least $5.00.

I don't know the exact KY statute, but all states' are very similar. An obligor can be found in contempt for WILLFUL non-payment, then it's up to the Judge what to order. Typically, a Judge will order jail time, or a purge amount, which is either the entire arrearage, or some fraction of the total, depending on what the obligor's actual ability to pay is.

Thanks for the reply! That is exactly what I thought too. I know that the Federal Max is usually 50% of whatever the person is earning regardless the amount they earn. I am not sure what is really going on with the whole situation and plan to call for an update tomorrow morning to find out. Basically, as you mentioned, if she is making $50 per week then it ought to be $25 per week that is garnished and then she is still responsible for the rest out of her own pocket.

To our knowledge, she is supposedly working at a restaurant as a Waitress/Hostess. She was earning $13 per hour at a job for just over a year but when she was served with the paperwork to go to court to set child support, she quickly quit that job and went to work at the restaurant. The court set her support according to her ability to earn $13 per hour/imputed income. She is that dumb that apparently she thought that if she could show that she works as a waitress for $2.30 per hour, her support would be set based upon that amount. According to Kentucky's state statutes that I have found since I first posted this, the State amount that determines Misdemeanor versus Felony is only $1000 and if it is found to be WILLFUL non payment then the Prosecutor usually does not offer any adjudicated sentences (time frame in which to pay up). I am hoping that she just owns up to paying support for her kids and does the right thing but if she refuses to do so then I hope she gets the maximum amount of jail time. Maybe it will teach her a lesson and we will not have to do this all the time.

As I said in my OP, this order was just set and signed into record on January 23, 2009 so I am sure that will not go over well for the Judge or Prosecutor that she has failed to provide support virtually the entire time since. If she felt that she could not pay it then she should have brought that up in court on her hearing date and tried to have the judge take into consideration that she no longer works where she used to. She lied to the DCSE anyway initially and told them that she lived at a false address, gave them the wrong employer name and contact information as well as income info. They had to get the correct information from us just to get her employer served the wage withholding order! She is a deadbeat if I have ever seen one and I hope she gets the full and maximum punishment for it!