When you have gotten a divorce from your now-former spouse, and you share a child together, the New Jersey family court may have assigned you as the child support payor. This is likely because you are now the non-custodial parent or are the parent with the higher income, so you are expected to give your former spouse financial aid for your child’s basic needs and living expenses (i.e., food, clothing, education, healthcare, childcare, extracurricular activities, etc). Because this is a court-ordered duty, backing out of it may lead to serious legal consequences. Without further ado, please follow along to find out whether you will go to jail if you are not meeting your child support obligation and how one of the proficient Bergen County criminal defense attorneys at McNerney & McAuliffe can help you before it gets to this drastic point.
Is it possible to go to jail for not paying child support?
To reiterate, child support is a court order by the New Jersey family court that handled your divorce case. And so, if you fail to meet this legal obligation, you may be held in contempt of court. However, this may only be executed if a judge has reason to believe that you are willfully failing to make these payments, and this action is thereby necessary to enforce the order. If evidence exists to support this stance, the judge may order you to serve up to six months of jail time.
Of note, this sentence may be extended if it is found that your outstanding child support debt is a significant amount, or your period of non-payment has gone on for a considerable duration. With this, you may be charged with a misdemeanor offense. This may be alongside hefty fines, wage garnishments, asset seizures, license and passport suspensions, and much more.
What should I do if I’m falling behind on child support?
You may not be intentionally neglectful of your child support obligation. But due to extenuating circumstances beyond your reasonable control, you may not have the financial resources to make ends meet every month. In turn, your monthly child support payment may suffer. So, before your former spouse takes criminal court action against you, it may be in your best interest to petition for a post-judgment modification with the New Jersey family court that handled your divorce case.
Here, you may argue that your financial situation has considerably changed since your original divorce case. This may be because you lost your employment in a mass layoff, you were diagnosed with a serious medical condition that requires expensive healthcare, you needed to pay for major home repairs after a severe weather event, or otherwise.
Before you find yourself in an even worse position, you must retain legal representation from McNerney & McAuliffe. A talented Bergen County child support attorney from our firm will guide you on what to do.