The Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee for Utah, a group of ten appointed individuals who convene every four years to discuss child support related issues, is considering creating an expedited process when it comes to dealing with temporary changes in a child support order, such as when a non-custodial parent has a temporary loss of income.

Realizing that non-custodial parents, just as the rest of us, can occasionally fall on hard times, which impedes their ability to pay their child support obligation, the committee is looking for ways to make it easier for the non-custodial parent to meet his or her child support payments during rough times, instead of having them fall even further behind in their payments and being labeled as a deadbeat parent. While non-custodial parents can currently ask for a temporary reduction in child support, the process is often slowed down by the custodial parent, who counters with formal complaints over alimony and other divorce related issues that have nothing to do with child support. A court battle begins over all of the issues, slowly down the process of temporarily reducing the child support payments, while wracking up legal fees for both parties simultaneously.

The hope is that the committee will be able to make it easier, and faster for a non-custodial parent to achieve a temporary reduction in their monthly child support obligation, so that he or she will be able to continuously meet the reduced child support rate, until their financial situation has been resolved, and the child support payments can then go back to their original amount. By taking the unnecessary fighting out of lowering child support on a temporary basis the committee is hoping that all of the parties involved will see the new system as a win-win situation for everyone. The non-custodial parent will not be labeled as a deadbeat for falling behind in payments, the custodial parent will continue to receive some money on a consistent basis, neither side gains more legal bills from fighting in court over the child support, and the court system itself will be less bogged down with frivolous lawsuits between two angry parties arguing over money.

Before making any decisions, the committee is seeking advice from the state Attorney General’s office during their next meeting at the end of August. Once their decisions have been made the committee plans to give the new information on how to deal with child support related issues to the Legislature in October. If the new system proves to be successful it will be interesting to see how many other states realize that their child support system as well, is in desperate need of reform, and then actually do something about it. Perhaps if states find ways to classify less parents as deadbeats, less parents would end up losing their parental rights for failing to support their child?

Click here for information/instructions on how to subscrible FREE to all of your favorite AdoptionBlogs!