Phillips, 030695 MSAGO, AGO 95-109

• Case Date: March 06, 1995
• Court: Mississippi

Mr. Gregg A. Phillips AGO 95-109 No. 95-0109 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions March 6, 1995          Mr. Gregg A. Phillips          Executive Director          Mississippi Department of Human Services          P.O. Box 352          Jackson, MS 39205          Re: Child Support Wage Withholding           Dear Mr. Phillips:          Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request for an opinion and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter has been attached for reference. You request an opinion regarding the necessity of filing and serving a notice of delinquency when enforcing an immediately-effective order for wage withholding in accordance with Section 93-11-103 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended. You cite the aforesaid statute as follows:

“The clerk of the court, the obligee's attorney, or the department's attorney may serve such immediate order for withholding by certified mail or personal delivery on the obligor's payor, superintendent, manager, agent, or subsequent payor, as the case may be. The clerk of the court shall be notified in a case where the obligee's attorney or the department's attorney serves such immediate order. There shall be no need for further notice, hearing, order, process or procedure prior to service on the payor or any additional or subsequent payor. Said immediate orders for withholding shall not include a notice of delinquency, yet shall specifically indicate whether or not the payor is required at the time the order is served on the payor, to withhold the additional amount specified therein for delinquency. The obligor may contest, if grounds exist, service of the order of withholding on additional or subsequent payors, by filing an action with the issuing court.”

         And you present the following question:

Whether or not the Division of Child Support Enforcement must, in accordance with Section 93-11-103, file a Notice of Delinquency in order to activate the part of the withholding order which gives the Department the authority to collect delinquent child support from the absent parent.

         Section 93-11-103 states unequivocally that there shall be no notice of delinquency included in an immediately-effective wage withholding order and that with the entry of the order there shall be no further notice, hearing, order, process, or procedure prior to services on the payor. Section 93-11-103, on its face, addresses only immediately-effective wage withholding. In accordance...