Difference between revisions of "Enforcing Orders in Family Matters"

People usually assume that when FMEP is involved it is the payor who is delinquent rather than the recipient. It can sometimes happen, usually as part of a larger dispute, that a recipient will refuse to accept the payor's support payments. If a payor simply throws up their hands and says "fine, I'll keep the money," the payor can find themself seriously disadvantaged if the larger problem ever goes to a hearing, plus the payor may have to pay the money the recipient refused to accept! What can also happen is that parties disagree about the amounts actually paid (ie: if the amounts were paid in cash, or were co-mingled with other amounts owing) and as the payor the onus is on you to show how much you paid.

Payors who find themselves in such situations can enroll in FMEP, just the way that recipients do. FMEP will accept the payor's payments and attempt to forward them to the recipient. If the recipient still refuses to accept the payments, FMEP will keep the payments on behalf of the recipient as well as a record of the payments made. This will protect the payor's interests at the hearing of the larger problem, if there ever is one, and will save the payor from falling into arrears.