Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Child Support: Administrative Agency?

The Indiana Senate has Senate Bill 105 proposing a pilot program. The following contains part of the Bill's synopsis with any emphasizing being done on my part:

Paternity and child support. Requires the department of child services (department) to: (1) implement a pilot program for establishing and enforcing paternity and child support; and (2) select counties to participate in the program. Requires the department to: (1) employ administrative law judges (ALJ); (2) serve notice of financial responsibility to an obligee and obligor concerning a child support obligation; (3) schedule a negotiation conference between the parties not more than 30 days after the department issues the notice; and (4) reschedule a negotiation conference....
Not what I call a Good Idea. Bad enough that we have people not knowing their rights in a law court but putting those same people in an administrative hearing seems - to me - as only increasing the problems we now have in paternity cases with paternity affidavits. See my New Case on Setting Aside Paternity Order

Some states already see some of these problems. Take a look at MO: Child Support Sometimes Owed Regardless of DNA from Florida Divorce Blog:

Six years later, the Missouri Supreme Court recently ruled, however, that Husband could not be incarcerated without a hearing and an opportunity to prove that he is not the biological father of the child.

That’s because Husband was determined to be the father by the child support agency rather than a court.

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