DivorceNet®

In February of 2008, I filed Failure to Pay Child Support against my ex...got him served after a few games in May. Our first court hearing with the AG was in August, we then went back to the AG in September. We are coming up to another court hearing in front of the Judge. No child support coming in at all. Roughly $15k behind. He is lying all over the place...and I wondered if Subpoena's are hard to do? I would love to see his bank information...Also, I don't know where he is living. It seems he is seperated from his current wife. So it would be difficult to serve him a subpoena. Is it required to serve him? I also wondered with your experience, do they eventually go to jail for non-payment? I am tired of going to court and lies just keep on coming. It just seems like a waste of time.

Subpoenas are not hard to do, for an attorney. It might be much more difficult for one to try on their own. Any errors in the process might end up having the subpoena thrown out and you want to avoid that. Attorneys can subpoena bank statements from the institutions if necessary. It could be quite expensive and may take some time if the subpoenaed institutions are not immediately responsive.

I recently went through the same situation as you after being ordered by the court to have him personally served. My ex was supposedly separated from his current wife, but also didn't provide a new address/phone. In order to serve him the process server made repeated visits to their marital residence (she kept evading them -- not answering the door, etc.) Finally the process server ending up nailing it to their door as well as snail mailing another copy according to the law. Lo and behold, he showed up in the courtroom a week later.

Now, I don't know if my ex is going to go to jail this time. The judge did ask if I wanted him to, and I said yes. (After more than 10 contempt violations and ex's repeated chances to comply, I didn't have to think twice about saying "yes." Enough is enough. Seems the same judge is fed up too.) A new hearing date is set and he was advised to get an attorney for this one. Now that jail is finally a real threat -- there's the economy issue to deal with too. I'm certain his attorney will find or try to find a way to wrangle him out of this one, and of course since that hearing he's made effort to pay again, but that's his pattern. Make payments until the fire is out, then resume again.

Child support enforcement is something on which you can spend a lot of money. One has to do a cost/benefit analysis to determine whether it's worth it. Unfortunately, without adequate information, sometimes that analysis involves a lot of guess work. With some people, it's like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Others have wages to be garnished, assets to be attached, tax refunds to be seized, etc.

Conducting discovery -- which is what issuance of subpoenas is -- can be expensive. Banks will sometimes do their best to avoid complying with subpoenas. If you have an attorney, banks may be more likely to comply. Best of luck.