Are Support Arrears Collectable As a Judgement Debt

My question involves child support in the State of: NJ

There is a recent court order that specifies an amount of arrears that includes child support payments, reimbursements, college fund payments, etc.

The probation department (collecting agency for child support in NJ) has a lien on real property for the payment of the arrears. However, it appears that this property will be foreclosed and the lien will be extinguished.

Is the court order determination of the arrears collectable as a debt judgment or does it have to be converted into a debt judgment by the court before it can be collected? In other words, do you have sue to collect the debt?

Are we speaking of a support order that is still active, or is the support case now closed with the only issue being the unpaid arrears?

Child support is still ongoing and payments are being made as ordered. This is about the past arrears that the court order NCP to pay in additional installments. Those payments are not being made.

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So does anyone have an answer? How do you collect arrears? The support order will last another 6 years or so. Do you have to wait for the order to expire or is there something that can be done in the interim?

I really didn't think this was a difficult question for some of you.

You collect arrears by taking the payor to court on a show cause (contempt) motion, and through judicial remedies such as garnishment or execution. If the arrears are significant enough, there could be a possibility of a criminal nonsupport charge.

Thank you Mr. K. I will pass on the information to CP.

One more question, would this action be under the same docket number in family court or can collection of the arrears be moved to the civil division? The family court has held NCP in contempt 3 times in the last 7 years already but says they can't do anything about the arrears if NCP is current on child support payments. All they do is update the amount of the arrears which are very significant. The only reason NCP is now staying current is he spent a few nights in the county jail.

I think the easiest and least costly way to approach this is to file for wage garnishment in family court rather than going through the expense of starting all over in civil court.

CP might also consider New Jersey's child support enforcement agency:

http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/probchild/index.htm

State enforcement agencies often go after wage garnishment and tax refund interception for arrears as well as current support.

Converting a child support deficiency to a civil judgment can change the statute of limitations applicable to the child support debt, might limit the applicability of other sanctions (e.g., suspension of passport eligibility, suspension of driver's license or a professional license) and, if not handled correctly, might result in a judgment that could be discharged in bankruptcy. The same enforcement tools should be available in the family court as in any other civil court -- contempt proceedings, garnishment, execution. A regular civil court is not going to incarcerate a judgment debtor for failing to pay a civil judgment.