As a business owner, keeping informed about the finer points of employment law is important. If you're getting ready to hire your first employees, you need to be sure that you understand exactly what you can and cannot do. Don't risk getting yourself into legal trouble by asking the wrong question at the interview or making an off-hand comment that's considered legally unacceptable. I created this site to give you the basics of employment law expectations. I hope that the information here helps you to understand what you should and shouldn't do as you're interviewing and hiring your first staff members.
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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law
Understanding The Basics Of Child Support Enforcement And Willful Underemployment
Irene Robertson
One of the biggest challenges that child support recipients face is when the paying spouse makes employment changes that affect their ability to pay that support. However, it can be difficult to know if they are wilfully reducing their ability to pay or if it is a situation that is beyond their control. Here's a look at what you need to know if you've found yourself in this situation.
Can You Take The Issue To Court?
The good news is that you are not left without options to deal with a lack of child support payments in a situation like this. You can work with a child support attorney to take the situation to court in some instances.
For example, if you have reason to believe that your spouse is fully capable of taking a higher-paying or full-time job and yet they are willfully settling for less in the hopes of reducing child support, you can request a show-cause hearing with the courts to have his or her employment situation evaluated.
What Happens In Court?
If you decide to reach out to a child support attorney and take your former spouse to court to pursue the child support that you are owed, it's important that you know what to expect. If you have any evidence of your former spouse's willful underemployment, provide it to your attorney as soon as possible to help build a sound case.
The judge will consider a variety of factors in cases like this. First, he or she will look at your former spouse's work and income history to get an idea of the type of work he or she has done in the past. Then, the judge will ask your former spouse about any kind of disability or other situation that may prevent them from working in their previous industry anymore.
The judge will also look at market reports for the industry to get an idea of how much work is available in the field. This is important because it can help to show if your former spouse is deliberately avoiding work in his or her industry.
However, if your former spouse has any health reasons or other verifiable reasons for the employment change, they can present that information to the judge, and the support order may be modified as a result.
The best thing you can do if you're dealing with a former spouse who isn't paying their child support is to reach out to a child support lawyer as soon as possible. They will help you to explore your enforcement options.
To learn more, contact a child support attorney.
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