(1)
Under existing law, a court may issue a stay of a wage assignment for child or spousal support only upon a prescribed finding of good cause.
This bill would reorganize and revise the grounds for staying such a wage assignment, including (a) making defined, alternative arrangements and (b) specified failure of the obligee to notify the obligor’s employer or agency making collection separate grounds. The bill would make related changes. The bill would also authorize a custodial parent receiving services under Title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act who is not the obligee of a support order to request the court to issue or modify such a wage assignment.
(2)
Existing law requires an employer that is withholding support from an employee’s wages for court-ordered support, to send the amounts withheld to the support obligee within 10 days of the date the obligor is paid.
This bill would require the employer to additionally report to the obligee the date on which the amount was withheld from the obligor’s wages.
(3)
Existing law authorizes registration of a support order made in this state or a foreign support order or foreign order for assignment of wages in the county where either the support obligor or the child resides.
This bill would also authorize registration of these orders in the county where the support obligee resides or any county where the obligor has income, assets, or property.
(4)
Existing law makes a foreign order for assignment of earnings subject to the same procedure for vacation of registration as a foreign support order.
This bill would delete this procedure as applied to foreign orders for assignment of earnings, and instead reference procedures that make these orders subject to a motion to quash under existing law.
(5)
Existing law specifies various requirements for child support orders.
This bill would require all child support orders to require the obligor and obligee to inform either the other parent or, if the order requires pay through an agency designated under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, that agency, of the current employer.
(6)
Existing law requires the court to order health insurance coverage be maintained for a child for whom support has been ordered, by either or both parents if available at no cost or reasonable cost to the parent.
This bill would require all child support orders which are issued or modified to include a requirement that the obligor and obligee provide each other with specified health policy insurance information.
(7)
Existing law provides that a judgment for child or spousal support, including a judgment for reimbursement or other arrearages, is exempt from any requirement that judgments be renewed, and that a judgment for child or spousal support, including all lawful interest and penalties computed thereon, is enforceable until paid in full.
This bill would delete the latter provision, would expressly make the provision for nonrenewal of judgments applicable to certain judgments in favor of a county for aid provided for support and maintenance, provide that such a judgment may be renewed (although not required) by filing an application for renewal at any time if the judgment has not previously been renewed, or if the judgment has previously been renewed, at any time after 5 years has elapsed from the time the judgment was previously renewed.
The bill would also delete existing requirements for periodic renewal of a judgment lien with respect to a judgment for child, family, or spousal support payable in installments.
(8)
Under existing law, an order for modification or revocation of child support may include an award of attorney’s fees to the prevailing party upon a showing of the nonprevailing party’s ability to pay.
This bill would delete those provisions.
(9)
Under existing law, a child or family support order may be enforced by a writ of execution, without court approval, until 5 years after the child reaches the age of majority or thereafter for amounts not more than 10 years overdue. Under existing law, a spousal support order is enforceable by a writ of execution, without court approval for amounts not more than 10 years overdue.
This bill would instead make these orders enforceable, without court approval, for as long as the order is enforceable.
(10)
Existing law specifies the priorities for crediting satisfaction of a money judgment for child support.
This bill would make these provisions applicable to other types of judgments for support and would specify that when the judgment is payable in installments, amounts credited against unsatisfied principal shall be credited against matured installments in the order in which they matured. The bill would also revise priorities for crediting collections resulting from tax refund offsets and specified liens on workers’ compensation awards.
(11)
Under existing law, county assessors are required to disclose, furnish abstracts of, and provide access to all information in their offices, including nonpublic information in their files, to various specified persons and agencies.
This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by requiring assessors to additionally provide access to this information to the State Department of Social Services.
(12)
Existing law makes a parent of a minor, the estate of a parent, and the estate of the minor liable for support of the minor while placed, detained in, or committed to, any institution pursuant to specified provisions for temporary custody or pursuant to an order of the juvenile court. Existing law specifies that these charges may not include costs of incarceration, treatment, or supervision for the protection of society or rehabilitation of the minor, but specifies that this limitation does not preclude the district attorney from seeking reimbursement of those costs in a child support order.
This bill would specify that the statewide child support guidelines are rebuttably presumed to be the correct amount of this support. The bill would impose a state-mandated local program by providing that any excess child support be held by the county in trust for the child or, if approved by the caseworker or probation officer, paid directly to the child. The bill would also revise procedural provisions respecting recovery of costs of out-of-home placements of dependent children and wards of the juvenile court. By requiring counties to designate a financial evaluation officer to make financial evaluations of prescribed parental liability, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(13)
Under existing law, district attorneys are required to investigate and obtain child or spousal support, in cases of nonsupport and where paternity is not established, if prescribed public assistance, including Medi-Cal benefits, is being provided.
This bill would specify that the district attorney shall provide child and spousal support assistance where only Medi-Cal benefits are being provided, unless the recipient of the services notifies the district attorney that only assistance in obtaining Medi-Cal benefits is requested.
(14)
Existing law requires state, county, and local agencies to cooperate with, and make location, property, and income information available to, district attorneys and the California Parent Locator Service in connection with recovery of minor children, location of parents or putative parents, and enforcement of spousal and child support.
This bill would require this cooperation and information to be provided additionally to the State Department of Social Services’ Statewide Automated Child Support System to the extent authorized by law. By making these requirements applicable to local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make related changes, would authorize the California Parent Locator Service and Central Registry to obtain information from specified sources in addition to the federal Parent Locator Service. The bill would give the Statewide Automated Child Support System the same access to information as the California Parent Locator Service and would give the Statewide Automated Child Support System access to criminal record information where permitted by law.
(15)
The bill would incorporate changes made by Chapter 301 of the Statutes of 1993 relating to domestic violence and conform those changes to the enactment of the Family Code. The bill would incorporate changes made by Chapter 158 of the Statutes of 1993 relating to courts that were chaptered out by Chapter 219 of the Statutes of 1993. The bill would also make technical changes to other provisions to conform to the enactment of the Family Code.
(16)
The bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 408 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, proposed by SB 143, to be operative only if SB 143 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 1994, and this bill is chaptered last. These changes would become operative on the operative date of SB 143.
(17)
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement, including the creation of a State Mandates Claims Fund to pay the costs of mandates which do not exceed $1,000,000 statewide and other procedures for claims whose statewide costs exceed $1,000,000.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to those statutory procedures and, if the statewide cost does not exceed $1,000,000, shall be made from the State Mandates Claims Fund.
(18)
The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.