Can a Wage Assignment Order for Child Support Be Voided?

In a child support case in California, some supporting parents – known as the obligor – will pay via an income assignment. In these situations, the money will be taken directly out of the person’s paycheck and sent to the receiving parent. For some supporting parents, this is not an issue and the payments are guaranteed to be made without needing to do anything else. In other cases, however, there are issues with the income assignment and they want to have it quashed or voided. Knowing what the law says about such a request and when it can be done is important to a case.

The assignment order can be quashed in the following circumstances: the order does not have the correct amount owed for support or for overdue support; the alleged person who is supposed to be paying the support is different from the person who is paying support, or the amount goes beyond the legal amount that can be taken out based on federal law.

If the assignment order was determined or modified before July 1, 1990, the person trying to have the order quashed can also have this done if there is good cause to do so. The obligor is required to say under oath which ground is being used to request that the assignment order be quashed. When there was an assignment order served on a previous employer and subsequently sent to a new employer, the obligor cannot request the order be quashed if there were prior requests made and reasons given or for any grounds that were not raised but could have been to get the order quashed. There are time limits to file the motion and it must be done within 10 days after the obligor received the copy of the assignment order from the employer.

For some parents, the wage assignment is a convenient way to ensure the child support is paid. For others, however, there are problems associated with it and they want to have the order stopped. This is relevant to both the supporting parent and the receiving parent. If there is a child support dispute or other issue related to the wage assignment, a law firm that has experience in child custody and support should be consulted with to deal with the problem and find a preferable solution.