Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Child Support Contempt

The $427.05 child support which was awarded to you

is extremely high for a parent who has never worked, unless you have custody of a large number of children. Generally when a parent does not work and has no employment history child support is based on minimum wage income which it is assumed the parent is capable of earning waithout experience or training. The law is limited on what can be done to enforce child support. If she does not show up for a hearing they will issue a bench warrant. It's hard to say how much effort will be made to find her, but if they do then can hold her until a court appearance. If she shows up and says she is unemployed and can't find work,she will be ordered to look for work and to provide evidence of twenty five job applications per week. If she continues to resist child support the state can take away her driver's license, if she has one, and while she can't usually be incarcerated for non-payment of child support she can be incarcerated for driving on a suspended license. This still doesn't get you the child support you need. Unfortunately child support is difficult to enforce when a parent is as resistant as this one appears to be. If you can get the back child support reduced to a judgment against her, and she has any property which could be attached, you might try that, but the States Attorney's office is usually too busy with what they consider more important cases to help you with that. You would probably need a private attorney to obtain a recorded judgment and collect on it.