14.2 Debts

Overview

Child support obligations are established by court or administrative order. In Wyoming, only a District Court can establish a child support obligation as described in detail in Chapter 8 Establishment in IV-D cases or through a private attorney action.

Policy

In the Wyoming CSP, the Clerk of District Court’s Office is responsible for entering court orders into POSSE; however, some Clerks of District Court have asked the District CSP Office to enter IV-D child support orders into POSSE. The District CSP Office Manager or the Clerk of District Court can provide specific details regarding court order entry. For purposes of this section, the term “case worker” will be used to identify the person entering the child support order for either the Clerk of District Court or the District CSP Office.

Most child support orders contain a current child support obligation, a medical support provision, and a judgment for past-due support or costs and fees associated with the action.

Commencement Date

The date the child support obligation begins is governed by the following rules:

• If the court order provides a date for the commencement of current support, the case worker will enter that date into POSSE as the initial payment due date.

• If the court order does not provide a date for commencement of current support, the case worker will use the file-stamped date of the order as the initial payment due date and update POSSE accordingly.

Medical Support

Wyoming District Court Judges may order one or both parents to provide health care coverage for the child as described in 8.4 Establishment – Medical Support. Based upon the medical support provisions in the order, the case worker will update the appropriate POSSE screens with the medical support provisions.

Judgments

A judgment in a child support order obtained through the Wyoming CSP may contain one or more of the following:

• Past-due support owed to the custodial parent;

• Past-due support owed to the State of Wyoming;

• Title XIX expenditures related to the birth of a child

All "judgment thru" dates on POSSE will be through the end of the month. Case workers will use the following rules for “thru” dates when entering judgments on POSSE:

• If the child support order contains a current support obligation along with a judgment, the judgment thru date will be the last day of the month before the start date of current support. For instance, if the current support obligation begins March 14, 2010, the case worker will enter the judgment through the end of February 2010.

• If the child support order does not contain a current support obligation, the case worker will enter the judgment through the end of the month prior to the file-stamp date of the order. For instance, if the child support order is filed April 5, 2010, the judgment will be entered through March 2010.

Cross Reference

None