Spur for Child Support

The California Supreme Court’s common-sense ruling on child support sends an appropriate message to parents who duck their court-ordered obligation to their children by willfully refusing to work. Now they have a choice. They can get a job and pay up or they can be held in contempt of court and go to jail.

“The duty of parents to support their children is a fundamental parental obligation,” the court declared. “We are satisfied that there is no constitutional impediment to use of the contempt power to punish a parent who, otherwise lacking monetary ability to pay child support, willfully fails and refuses to seek and accept available employment commensurate with the parent’s skills and abilities.”

The ruling breaks a century-old precedent based on an 1897 opinion that held the courts lacked the power to punish a person for failing to seek employment in order to pay alimony. The apparent reasoning in the 19th century case was that forcing a person to get a job constituted involuntary servitude akin to slavery and that imposing jail time constituted imprisonment for a debt. The California Constitution specifically prohibits imprisonment for a debt in a civil action. But failure to pay child support is a crime.

The new decision involved a Riverside man who allegedly refused to work for a number of years so he could avoid his obligation to his two children. He depended on his mother for support, according to court papers. A lower court found that he willfully refused to find work. The defendant now has a job at a car dealership, and half of his income has been attached to pay back child support.

California has nearly 2.4 million active child support cases, and a spokesperson for the state’s district attorneys estimates that between 10% and 20% involve parents, primarily fathers, who refuse work to avoid making court-ordered payments. Under current state law, a parent who fails to comply with a child support order faces a fine of up to $1,000 for each payment not paid in full and up to five years in jail.

The high court’s ruling should help county district attorneys step up the pressure.