Also known as: automatic wage withholding · automatic wage withholdings · wage withholding · income withholding
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A statutory enforcement mechanism by which a court or agency directs an employer to deduct support payments directly from an obligor's wages and remit them to the obligee.
Javier receives a Madrid tribunal order requiring monthly payments for his adult daughter Lucia while she attends conservatory. After signing a California contract, his ex-spouse registers the order in California. The court directs the production company to withhold the amounts from Javier's fees and forward them automatically.
Richard falls behind on support payments and faces contempt proceedings. Rather than jailing him, the court imposes a wage assignment directing his employer to deduct a set amount each week and send it directly to the recipient until arrears are cleared.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Yes. The uniform act defines a child-support order to include obligations for a child who has reached majority under the issuing jurisdiction's law when the order was properly issued for the child's benefit. Once registered, the responding state may direct the employer to withhold wages automatically.
The withholding order remains in effect and follows the obligor. The new employer must honor the directive and begin automatic deductions upon notice, ensuring continuous payments without requiring a new court order.
Yes. The definition of support order expressly includes orders benefiting a spouse or former spouse, and the enforcement tools such as income withholding apply to those orders once registered in the responding state.
…enforcement); 45 CFR pt. 303 (2010) (prescribing standards for state child support agencies). These systems often rely upon wage withholding, expedited procedures for modifying and enforcing child support orders, and automated data processing. 42 U. S. C. §§666(a), (b), 654(24). But sometimes States will use contempt orders to…