Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Child Support Payments - who shoud I pay?

My court order for child support payments stated that I should make the payments directly to my ex OR I could make the payments through the registry of an appropriate court. The order further states that if either party elected to go through the court registry, the other party would have to consent to the court registry. I was making the payments to my ex, but my ex opened the case with Department of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) so she would not have to worry about collecting the payments. Can I now elect to make the payments through the court registry since the order states as such? DCSE has notified me that if I made payments to anybody other than DCSE, it would consider the payments as gifts and not credit the child support payments. If I went to the court registry, who should I designate as the payee - DCSE or my ex?


Asked on 8/03/08, 7:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Child Support Payments - who shoud I pay?

DCSE. Once your former spouse assigned her support rights to the state, DCSE must by law be the payee on the case. (My opinion as the former DCSE district adminstrator for Northern Virginia some 20 years ago.)

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Answered on 8/03/08, 10:43 pm


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