ASSEMBLY, No. 2145

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED JUNE 17, 1996

By Assemblywoman TURNER

An Act concerning the docketing of child support orders and amending P.L.1988, c.11.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 1 of P.L.1988, c.11 (C.2A:17.56.23a) is amended to read as follows:

    1. Modification of child support order. Any payment or installment of an order for child support, or those portions of an order which are allocated for child support, whether ordered in this State or in another state, shall be fully enforceable and entitled to full faith and credit and shall be a judgment by operation of law on and after the date it is due. The Probation Division of the Superior Court shall not docket a child support judgment as a lien with the Clerk of the Superior Court until the amount of the arrearage equals or exceeds the amount of child support payable for one month. No payment or installment of an order for child support, or those portions of an order which are allocated for child support established prior to or subsequent to the effective date of P.L.1993, c.45 (C.2A:17-56.23a), shall be retroactively modified by the court except with respect to the period during which there is a pending application for modification, but only from the date the notice of motion was mailed either directly or through the appropriate agent. The written notice will state that a change of circumstances has occurred and a motion for modification of the order will be filed within 45 days. In the event a motion is not filed within the 45-day period, modification shall be permitted only from the date the motion is filed with the court.

    The non-modification and lien threshold provision of this section [is] are intended to be curative and shall apply to all orders and judgments entered before, on and after the effective date of this act. (cf: P.L.1993,c.45, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    Currently, a child support judgment is docketed with the Clerk of the Superior Court as a Statewide lien against an obligor's real estate and is reported against that person's credit report. On the first day of each month, the automated child support system used by the Probation Division identifies cases in which there is any past due amount. In many instances, the late payment is not the fault of the obligor and there was no intent to default on the payment. About half of all child support orders, approximately 140,000 cases, are paid by the obligor's employment through withholding. If the obligor's pay period does not end when the payment is due or the employer sends the payment late, the computer program which tracks cases for judgment processing is activated and a statewide lien will be automatically created.

    This system of processing can result in costly and lengthy processing to remove the deficient judgment and delinquencies reported to credit agencies and may recur month after month. Moreover, the Administrative Offices of the Courts reports a significant loss of Probation Division and Superior Court Clerk staff time to close judgments and remove liens.

    This bill would amend the statute concerning the docketing of child support judgments to provide that the Probation Department shall not docket a judgment as a lien through the automated processing system until the amount due exceeds the amount of support payable for one month. The bill does not prohibit an obligee from manually docketing a child support judgment of any amount as a lien with the Clerk of the Superior Court.

Clarifies that child support judgments shall not be docketed until arrearage equals or exceeds amount payable for one month.