The payments stopped and the child's expenses did not. In Florida, a child support order stays binding until a judge changes it, and a payment that comes due and goes unpaid does not quietly expire. Under section 61.14(6)(a) of the Florida Statutes, an unpaid installment that was supposed to run through the depository becomes, after notice to the paying parent and the time allowed to respond, a final judgment by operation of law.
The money is still owed. The question is how to collect it, and Florida gives you two different routes. You can open a case with the Florida Department of Revenue's Child Support Program, which enforces administratively at no cost to you, or file your own motion in the court that entered the order, which in a Tampa case is the Hillsborough County Circuit Court, Family Law Division, at the George Edgecomb Courthouse on East Twiggs Street. Many people use both. Our post-judgment enforcement page describes how we handle these matters.
Start by finding out how your order is actually set up
Three facts about your case shape what follows.
- Where the payments were supposed to go. Support routed through the Florida State Disbursement Unit and the clerk's central depository produces an official payment record you can obtain. Direct payment between the parents leaves no independent ledger.
- Whether an income deduction order was entered. Section 61.1301 requires one when a court establishes, enforces, or modifies a support obligation. Yours may exist but have never been served on a current employer, or may take effect only upon a delinquency.
- Whether the Department of Revenue is already involved. That is usual where a parent has received public assistance, and open to any other parent on application.
How support is calculated in the first place is covered on our child support page.
Income deduction does most of the ordinary work
An income deduction order directs the paying parent's employer to take the support out of the paycheck and send it to the State Disbursement Unit, which disburses it to you. For a wage earner with a steady job it is the most durable remedy available, because it takes the monthly decision away from the paying parent.
Two details matter when arrears have already built up. Section 61.1301 directs the employer to deduct an additional 20 percent of the ordered periodic amount until the arrearage is paid in full, and the total deducted cannot exceed the limits set by the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, so a large arrearage against a modest paycheck is collected over time rather than all at once. Those arrearage payments outlast the support itself: when a child ages out, what was already missed remains owed and collection continues.
Income deduction reaches a payroll department. Where the other parent is self-employed, paid in cash, or moving between jobs, there is none to serve, and the work shifts to locating income and assets, which takes longer.
What the Department of Revenue can do that a private motion cannot
This is where enforcing child support differs most from enforcing alimony. The Child Support Program administers Florida's obligations under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, and it holds collection tools no individual parent has, most of them administrative rather than requiring a hearing each time.
- Intercepts. Past-due support is submitted for interception of federal income tax refunds, and can reach lottery winnings, workers' compensation benefits, and insurance settlements.
- Passport denial. Where past-due support exceeds $2,500, the case is forwarded through the federal program under which the State Department can deny a passport application.
- Bank accounts and liens. The program matches cases against financial institution records, can collect from accounts, and can place liens on vehicles, boats, and other property.
- Credit reporting. Past-due amounts are reported to the credit bureaus.
- Driver license suspension. Under section 61.13016, once a paying parent is 15 days delinquent, notice may be sent of an intent to suspend the driver license and motor vehicle registration. That parent has 20 days from the mailing date to pay, enter a written payment agreement, or file a petition contesting the notice, which the court must hear within 15 days. In practice this draws a faster response than almost anything else on the list.
- Interstate reach. The program works across state lines through the federal child support system.
There is no fee to apply. Two limits are worth knowing. The program's attorneys represent the state's interest in the support case rather than you personally, and they do not take up time-sharing disputes or the rest of your family law file. An administrative queue also moves at its own pace.
Contempt, and what a judge has to find
A motion for civil contempt and enforcement asks the court to bring its own authority to bear on the paying parent directly. Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.615 sets out what has to be found: a prior order of support, a failure to pay part or all of it, the present ability to pay, and a willful failure to comply.
The first two points are usually arithmetic, and the hearing turns on ability. Once a court has ordered a specific amount of support, the paying parent is presumed able to pay it, and the burden shifts to that parent to show otherwise. A judge looks at income from every source, at assets that could be reached, and at whether any inability was self-created.
Where contempt is found, the order carries a purge, an amount the parent can pay to avoid the sanction. Any incarceration must rest on a written finding of present ability to meet that purge, and a parent arrested on a writ of bodily attachment gets a hearing on that ability within 48 hours.
One procedural point is specific to child support. Under Rule 12.491, cases receiving Department of Revenue services are typically heard by a child support hearing officer, who takes evidence and makes a recommended order to the circuit judge. A party who disagrees files a motion to vacate within 15 days. Section 61.16 also allows a court to order one parent to pay the other's reasonable fees and costs.
Reducing the arrears to a judgment
Whichever route you take, ask the court to determine the arrearage and enter judgment for it. A judgment fixes the number, ends the argument over the ledger, and opens the collection tools that follow any civil judgment, including a lien against real property. That matters most once the child has aged out and no current support is running, because there is then no monthly payment for the 20 percent add-on.
The principle runs the other way too. A court's authority to modify support generally reaches back no further than the date the request was filed, so earlier arrears are not erased by a later change.
Two responses that will not help
Withholding time-sharing. Support and time-sharing are separate obligations under Florida law. A parent who stops the other parent's time because support went unpaid creates a second problem without solving the first.
Accepting a private side agreement. If the two of you agree between yourselves to a reduced amount, the order still says what it says and arrears keep accruing. A change belongs in a filed modification, described on our post-judgment modification page.
One correction, because the belief is widespread: there is no age at which a Florida child chooses which parent to live with. A court may consider a child's reasonable preference where the child is of sufficient intelligence, understanding, and experience to express one, as a single factor among many.
What to bring
- The final judgment or support order, and every order entered since.
- The payment history from the clerk's depository, or your own bank and payment app records if payments were direct, with a list of what was due, what was paid, and when payment stopped.
- What you know about the other parent's current employment, business, or income.
- Any texts, emails, or letters about why payments stopped, and your Department of Revenue case number if you have one.
You do not need all of it before you call. Gaps can be filled from the court file and through discovery. Rechel & Associates has been serving Tampa Bay families since 1992, focused exclusively on divorce and family law, and going back to court to collect support a child is owed is ordinary work in that practice.