Dad serves jail time for clerical error regarding child support

Most parents diligently act to stay current with the child support order they are obligated to pay. If a parent falls behind in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, there are a number of circumstances that can occur, one of those being jail time. Recently, a dad was released from jail related to a child support issue. The situation made news due to the fact that the back due child support was due to a clerical error rather than an intended failure to pay.

The father has a son and had arranged for his child support payments to automatically come out of his paycheck. It was discovered that the payments were only coming out of the check on a sporadic basis, and not consistently as they should have been done in order for the dad to stay current with those payments. By the time the situation was discovered, the man was behind $3,000.

The man turned himself into authorities and went to jail on a contempt charge for being behind. He had to pay the back-due $3,000 amount to get a hearing to be released. His sentence was suspended, and the man was released just in time to enjoy a month with his son.

This case gained attention due to the fact that the father didn’t intentionally avoid payments and apparently didn’t realize he was even behind. Any Pennsylvania parent who arranges for automatic payment may want to take steps to verify that child support payments are made and made on time. Any parent who fears they may fall behind in payment due to a significant decrease in income may benefit from learning more about modifications and ways to avoid the consequences of not making timely, complete payments.

Source: theroot.com, “Texas Man Who Overpaid Child Support Is Released From Prison”, Breanna Edwards, July 28, 2014