By Ambrosia Hauser, Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
This is the second blog entry of the Child Support Division's series to assist you in navigating Title IV-D child support cases. In this installment, we will discuss three simple but effective measures you should take to avoid common mistakes that result in extra work for everyone and the occasional unhappy parties.
Determining whether our office is involved in the case
Determining if our office is involved in a case may seem obvious, however this is often overlooked. It is important to know if our division is involved to ensure your client’s case is administered and enforced properly.
To learn if our office is involved, call or email any deputy prosecutor or email familyadvocate@indy.gov to verify. You can also check mycase.in.gov to see if our office has filed to intervene. If a Motion to Intervene has been previously filed, this is a good indication that one of the parties has enrolled in our services. However, this is not always reliable as captions on mycase.in.gov are not always up to date.
You can also determine if our office is involved by asking the parties. You should always ask the custodial parent if they have ever received TANF or Medicaid as that may require them to enroll in our services. Keep in mind that one or both parties may not always be aware of our office's involvement. Do not assume that just because the custodial parent is seeking private counsel, that he or she does not have an open Title IV-D case. Please take the actions above to clarify.
Taking your Orders/Modifications to the Clerk's Office
To ensure a Title IV-D case is properly updated, you must provide all Orders—initial, modifications, and all others—to the Clerk’s Office and follow up to confirm the ISETS account has been properly updated. Much of the ISETS system is automated and will continue to charge previous orders until a new or modified order has been entered into the system. The Clerk's Office does not automatically receive a new or modified order, so it is up to you and your client to take the steps necessary to ensure they have the most up to date order(s).
When a hearing has concluded, any resulting order affecting child support should be provided to the Clerk's office or the assigned Deputy Prosecutor so that the account can be updated as soon as possible. Do not assume the Prosecutor's Office has a copy of all the orders, especially if a prosecutor did not participate in the hearing. Like the Clerk's Office, we do not automatically receive any order. If a hearing in which you participated results in a changed order, notify the Clerk's Office of the changed order, or confer with us to make sure we have a copy of the order. We will have our staff make the changes in ISETS for you if we are given the order. When a prosecutor is not present, the best practice is to send us a copy of the new order.
This applies to updating employers as well as ISETS. If your client starts a new job, please update our office so we can send a new income withholding order to avoid any errors in administering the order.
A common error we see is when an order does not include enough information to fully update ISETS. When drafting orders, please include:
- Effective dates of any changes;
- An arrears determination with date of calculation, and;
- A provision requiring that the noncustodial parent make payments via income withholding order and the Indiana State Central Collection's Unit (INSCCU).
The judge may not sign a proposed order right away and it is common for orders to not be signed for several weeks. If an effective date is not specified, the changes made will be effective the date the Court approves the order. Similarly, setting an arrears amount with an effective date will eliminate many questions in the future about past due child support.
All child support orders must require that child support payments: (1) be made by immediate income withholding, and (2) be paid through the Clerk or State Central Collections Unit. The only exception is when the court enters written findings specifying that good cause exists not to require those stipulations.
ISETS is an outdated program and adding these provisions will guarantee that ISETS can execute the exact order fully and prevent any confusion in compliance with any order’s terms.
Withdrawing from the case
Withdrawing from a case is essential and the failure to do so is a common obstacle for your (past) clients and our office. Please take the time to file a Motion to Withdraw once your services are complete and you no longer represent a client. It is required by Local Rule 49-FR000-512 and therefore your client is considered represented until we can confirm and verify that they are not through an approved motion.
If you don't file your withdrawal, we cannot rely solely on the representations of your client that you are no longer their counsel of record. Instead, we will contact you immediately to confirm your representation or ask you to formally withdraw from the case. Taking the time to withdraw prevents the need for a call from us and will also prevent your (former) client from getting angry with you for not being more helpful.
Although seemingly obvious, determining if our office is involved in the case, providing all orders and/or modifications to the clerk's office, and withdrawing from the case when your representation has concluded are three very simple actions you should take to prevent any long-term issues from arising in administering a child support order. We hope you keep these tips in mind going forward as these simple measures can ensure any Title IV-D child support case moves forward with ease.
If you would like to submit content or write an article for the Family Law Section, please email Kara Sikorski at ksikorski@indybar.org.
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