Can late child support affect a N.D. law license?
May 28, 2012 at 7:15 pm in Grand Forks Herald
North Dakota lawyers are raising questions about whether the state’s child support enforcement agency can suspend an attorney’s law license for late payments. Continue Reading

These child support people have borrowed every tactic from SS to get people to pay
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1941 Germany
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State- or Federally-issued licenses should be used to insure the person has a reasonable ability to perform the licensed behavior.
A driver’s license should mean the person is a reasonably skilled and responsible motor vehicle operator.
A business license should mean that a person ethically runs a legal business.
A license to practice law or medicine or whatever should mean the person is appropriately skilled in that field.
Suspending a license due to some infraction of licensed behavior is permissible, but none of those licenses should be used as collateral for child support or any other off-target purpose.
If a person fails to make court-ordered payments, ARREST THEM, don’t suspend their hunting license.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I disagree on the point of arresting them. When people get arrested they don’t go to work. When people don’t go to work they don’t make money to pay the court order fees. There needs to be some common sense in the system and the way it is currently setup there doesn’t appear to be any that’s what annoys me about the whole child support issue.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Good point. Sort of like the old practice of throwing people into debtors’ prison. My question would be, where were the attorneys when it affected other professions?
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Laughing all the way to bank with the fees they were able rack up from the people the people who had to go to court over this issue
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But if they are not paying the child support when they are working, throwing them in jail does not affect the party who is not getting paid.
It does however, take the money away from the individual who refused to pay the support for the child they created.
To do nothing will not fix the problem.
To threaten the persons business might just make it a priority over the new car etc….
At some point there needs to be a tougher stance on deadbeat parents.
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But you see the amount owed is withheld directly from your paycheck. I have had friends who have gotten paychecks for $5 or less. Good thing he was able to get that extra hour of work in or it would be considered failure to pay and he would have went to jail.
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The states are trying to criminalize a civil matter. What really gets me the most about this topic is that support and visitation are sperate when it should be all one issue. Alot of people misuse the courts for a personal vendetta against the other parent. I strongly feel that the primary parent should be penalized when they withhold the children from the other parent unjustly. I think there should be fines attached there too. This system is one sided and extrememly unfair. A major overhaul is in order.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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There should be no “Primary” Parent.
I know there is…. I just think it should be equal care.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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There has got to be a way for people, men and women, to be forced to provide support for their children if they are ablebodied. Way too many who are ordered to provide support feel they can just ignore that order. What means should there be to insure that those who have responsibilty to take care of the children they have brought into this world actually follow through with supporting them? Why would an attorney who ostensibly has at least an average income be inclined to not support their children? Who does that? Maybe putting a list of people in the paper stating their child support indebtedness, their address and even their pictures would induce them to pay up.
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right back to my #1 preaching point…….Personal Responsibility!!!!!
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Don’t attorneys take an oath to uphold the law? Seems that by not following a court order they should be disbarred.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Sorry, but again I’m going to disagree with the majority. ND has one of the highest collection rates child support in the nation. The reason that they do is because they have done things like connecting your child support to your drivers license, hunting license etc etc.
If you don’t like the laws on how ND calculates child support, if you don’t like how ND determines custody.. Get the law changed. Until then I support their efforts to ensure that more people don’t become the ‘Dead Beat’ variety.
KIDS ARE NOT A PAWN.. They unfortunately the collateral damage for people who haven’t figured out that the kids are more important.
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Here’s rub on how the state handles cases. When you change a job or are laid off or God forbd you have an accident and pay child support the state is super slow at amending orders. If for any reason there is a reduction it takes forever. A person who pays support and gets behind also pays 7% interest that goes to the state. Not the child. If there is an increase they can go back and charge the amount plus interest. This has become a money maker for the state. This article doesn’t give enough imformation as to why the attorney’s payment wasn’t made. If he blantantly disregarded it than ok penalize him. It is still a civil matter that should not be criminalized.
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Sorry, not going to find empathy from me. If you are going to have children you assume ALL responsibility for said children. That includes support. In my opinion if you get behind on child support you should have your butt thrown in prison.
Divorce has very few consequences. I certainly don’t want them to make it even easier on people who choose to put themselves before the children they created.
If your differences are so bad that they cannot be reconciled fine, get a divorce. But that is now where personal responsibility comes into play and you need to be responsible to take care of your obligations. The state of ND takes NOTHING of the base amount of money that is awarded to a spouse on separation. If they charge you a fee (like any bank, or credit card company does) good for them. At least they are being responsible enough to not put that tax burden on people who do pay their child support on time, or who elected to not have children. I shouldn’t have to pay because someone else wanted to play.
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You should not be able to practice law when you do not follow a court order. It is the same principle of why the highway patrolman resigned after receiving a dui.
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You see your friend should have cooperated and payed right away instead of being delinquint! Than he wouldn’t have been in the situation you stated. If he is having his paycheck withheld and 1 late payment from going to jail he has ignored his duties as a father for a long time. These actions don’t occur on your first late payment.
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They can only take up to 50% of your paycheck in ND. If your ‘friend’ got a $5 check…he only earned $10 for that pay period.
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Personal Responsibility.
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Social Services is the problem… They want their money back.. Social Services is the child support boggy man.. They will get their money back at all cost..
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I work in a Social Services office in MN. While I’m not familiar with ND rules, we don’t get anything on child support collections unless the custodial parent is getting cash assistance. Then the custodial parent gets the first $50, and the county gets the rest. That ends as soon as the CP is off of assistance. If you are behind, the county will continue to get paid, but quite frankly, the county spends more on the children than it collects for itself. Child Support collection is not a money maker for the county.
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The systen nationally doesn’t work well at all. I live in ND and am court ordered to pay health insurance for my son. Which would be just fine but he lives in MN and is on a MN health care plan through the state. So I pay a higher primium with not one claim for him ever on my insurance. I have made all the calls and noone cares. My fiancee was from MN and lives here now and his ex even though she’s completely able bodied to work and just won’t. That is what is wrong with MN current system. How people can just sit on assistance is amazing to me. I know everyone has different circumstances. I wonder if you had more man power and could go on a case by case basis if MN would actually save money.
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While it is only a small comfort, she can only be on cash assistance for 5 years. That’s total, whether all at once or in increments. She has to comply with job search activities, education, etc. to help her become self-sufficient. She will get daycare assistance and medical help after she gets a job, but that doesn’t last forever either.
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As for the health insurance, I can’t imagine why there have been no claims on your insurance, unless the child has not gone to the doctor. I worked in a hospital busniess office before I worked in Social Services, and MNCare in any form will not pay claims before other insurance is billed. Does the office for the state insurance know about the other coverage? That could be the problem there, as communication between the states is not the best.
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Sue.. You bought up a whole bunch of what if.. North Dakota don’t look it it the way others do… Social services only want their money back.. They don’t care about the pain they cause to others..
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The laws that social services abides by have been implemented by the people you elect to office. They don’t make the rules they enforce them.
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Child support is nothing but a scapegoat to trap people into something that is not what it really is.. Social Services wants their money regardless who broke up the marriage.. It usually is the person that left the house..
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