When the court orders one parent to pay child support to the other, the hope is that things will go smoothly and they will make these monthly payments moving forward. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Some parents refuse to pay or fall behind on their payments and do not make an effort to get caught up.
If you are the custodial parent who is supposed to be receiving these payments, you may be very frustrated that you’re not getting the money that the court ordered your ex to pay. If your ex has visitation rights or gets to have custody of your child on occasion, you may consider denying those custody rights until they make the payments. Is this a viable tactic to use?
It is illegal to deny custody exchanges
No, this is something that people consider, but it is not something you should ever do. You cannot deny custody exchanges over child support issues. Even though your ex is violating the child support order, you still have to abide by the custody order to avoid violating their rights.
There are some rare exceptions where you can deny a custody exchange. But, for the most part, you have to show that there’s a significant safety issue. If you think your child will be in danger, could suffer harm or is at risk of being abducted—often known as parental kidnapping—then you may be able to take emergency action and avoid the custody exchange.
But you can’t do it for something as simple as getting your ex to pay child support. For that, you need to approach the court and get them to enforce the order. It’s very important to know what legal steps you should take at this time.
