South Carolina takes small step toward insuring due process in child support collection

Posted Sunday, March 2nd, 2014 by Gregory Forman
Filed under Child Support, Family Court Procedure, Of Interest to Family Court Litigants, Of Interest to Family Law Attorneys, South Carolina Specific

On February 28, 2014 the South Carolina Supreme Court promulgated the use of the following new form, SCCA 430S, which can be downloaded here, for use in child support collection proceedings.

Download (PDF, 303KB)

This form is designed to provide a sworn one-page summary of the obligor’s current income, assets and monthly debts, and information regarding other biological children [the form’s failure to include adopted children is a conceptual flaw] residing in the obligor’s home.  It requires the obligor to providing supporting documentation of current income and encourages the obligor to provide corroborating documentation of monthly debts.  The likely assumption is that family court judges will use this form to determine whether the obligor’s support delinquency is truly willful and determine how much of the arrearage should be paid immediately and how rapidly the remainder can be paid.

In Turner v. Rodgers, 131 S.Ct. 2507 (2011), the United States Supreme Court found South Carolina’s methods for support enforcement violated due process.  Both before and after Turner I have publicly criticized these methods.  This new form is a small, but still insufficient, method of reducing these due process violations.