Filial Responsibility Laws

**BigWarmandFuzzy** · 08-11-2010, 09:29 AM

This question regards the state of NC.

Are Filial Responsibility Laws typically enforced?

**Mr. Knowitall** · 08-13-2010, 06:40 AM

Quoting NCGS 14‑326.1. Parents; failure to support.

If any person being of full age, and having sufficient income after reasonably providing for his or her own immediate family shall, without reasonable cause, neglect to maintain and support his or her parent or parents, if such parent or parents be sick or not able to work and have not sufficient means or ability to maintain or support themselves, such person shall be deemed guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor; upon conviction of a second or subsequent offense such person shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

If there be more than one person bound under the provisions of the next preceding paragraph to support the same parent or parents, they shall share equitably in the discharge of such duty.

You mean, are adult children often criminally prosecuted for failing to support their parents? No, it's not common. There's no apparent source of statistics on how often charges may have been filed under that statute, so I can't be more exact.