HRS § 571-52.2 Automatic Assignment By Court Or Administrative Order of Future Income For Payment of Child Support

• Library: Hawaii Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through 2023 Legislative Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: HRS § 571-52.2

(a) Notwithstanding section 571-52, the court shall order an assignment of future income when:

(1) The court has ordered any person (hereinafter the "obligor") to make periodic payments toward the support of a child pursuant to a court or administrative order, judgment, or decree;

(2) The court or administrative order, judgment, or decree provides for an automatic assignment of the obligor's income upon the obligor's failure to timely pay any child support that the obligor is required to pay through the child support enforcement agency or directly to the obligee; and

(3) The court finds the obligor to be delinquent in payments in an amount equal to or greater than the sum of payments which would become due over a one-month period under the order, judgment, or decree providing for child support.

The order shall take effect without necessity of further action of the court, except when a hearing is requested under subsection (c).

(b) The court or the child support enforcement agency, on its own motion, may order an assignment of future income, or a portion thereof, of the obligor in an amount adequate to insure that past due payments and payments which will become due in the future under the terms of the support order will be paid.

(c) The court or the clerk of the court shall provide the obligor written notice at least fourteen days in advance of entering an automatic income assignment and inform the obligor the automatic income assignment will issue on a certain date unless the obligor files with the court or the clerk of the court a written objection to the automatic assignment and a written request for a hearing. If the obligor files the written objection and the written request, the court or the clerk of the court shall not issue the automatic assignment of future income until a hearing is held and the matter resolved. The court shall establish and implement other notice procedures as may be necessary to adequately protect the obligor's right to procedural due process.

(d) The order for automatic assignment shall operate as an assignment by the obligor to the child support enforcement agency and shall be binding upon any person who is or shall become obligated to the obligor for payment of income and who has been served with a copy of the assignment order. The order shall be in the standard format prescribed by Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, as amended by the child support enforcement agency.

The assignment shall continue after the obligor's requirement to pay future child support has ended if the obligor owes past due support, and any amount received pursuant to the assignment shall be applied to satisfy all past due support owed. The assignment shall be terminated when appropriate by the court, the clerk of the court, or the child support enforcement agency; provided that payment of all overdue support shall not be the sole basis for terminating the assignment. An employer withholding income for payment to the child support enforcement agency shall terminate withholding upon receipt of a notice from the child support enforcement agency to terminate income withholding. In the event that the obligee retains private counsel or proceeds pro se, the obligee shall have primary responsibility for terminating the assignment.