Can’t Locate Parent for Child Support in Atlanta: What Should I Do?
While a parent who fails to pay child support can be highly frustrating, your situation may become even more dire if you can’t even locate that person. This situation is more common than many people realize, and it leads to considerable financial stress throughout Georgia. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take in this situation – and an experienced child support attorney in Atlanta may be able to help.
Contact the Georgia Department of Human Resources
If you cannot locate the non-custodial parent, the Superior Court of Fulton County is quite clear about what you should do. The court recommends that you immediately contact the Georgia Department of Human Resources – specifically the Division of Child Support Services (DCSS). According to the court, DCSS will assist you in locating the non-custodial parent.
Even if the non-custodial parent has left the state, DCSS will continue to assist you with this problem. They claim to be capable of tracking down parents inside and outside the State of Georgia. This should be your first step if you cannot locate a parent who owes child support – and you do not need help from a lawyer in order to contact DCSS.
Filing a Petition
That being said, lawyers can help you with other steps. Perhaps most notably, they can help you file a petition with the family court – and this could help you determine the last known address of the missing parent. Although this information may be confidential to average people, the court and relevant agencies could uncover the address and share it with you.
A lawyer can also help you keep track of retroactive child support. If a parent is missing payments, you should keep track of the total amount owed. Once you locate the parent, they may need to pay the amount that they have missed so far. Perhaps most notably, there is no statute of limitations on this debt. This is unlike other types of debt (including credit card delinquencies), which eventually “expire” after a certain amount of time.
The court has ways of encouraging parents to make these payments. One option is to suspend or revoke their driving license. Even if they are trying to “lay low,” they may eventually surface after losing the right to drive. The court could also revoke any professional licenses they have, making it impossible for them to legally earn income. In the same way, this places considerable pressure on parents to come forward and start paying child support.
an a Child Support Lawyer in Georgia Help Me Track Down the non-custodial parent?
If you need help tracking down a parent who is failing to pay child support, consider a consultation with an experienced family law attorney in Atlanta. With help from a legal professional, you can take the necessary steps to hold the parent accountable and relieve financial pressure. To learn more about your legal options, schedule a consultation with Kaye, Lembeck, Hitt & French today.
Sources:
fultoncourt.org/family/family-childsupport#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20unable%20to,outside%20the%20state%20of%20Georgia.
fultoncourt.org/springboard-page?external_title=undefined&goback_url=https://www.fultoncourt.org/family/family-childsupport&goforward_url=https://childsupport.georgia.gov/?utm_source=dcss.dhs.georgia.gov&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=alias
