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Child Support Act 1991

Enforcement provisions - Provisions as to enforcement of financial support liability

196: Contempt procedures

You could also call this:

“Court can make you do community work if you don't pay child support when you can afford it”

If you owe money for child support and refuse to pay even though you can afford it, the court might make you do community work. This can happen if other ways to make you pay haven’t worked.

The court can order you to do up to 400 hours of community work if they are sure you have enough money to pay but haven’t.

The Commissioner can ask the court to make you do community work if you haven’t paid your child support. They need to show proof that you haven’t paid.

If you’ve already been asked about your finances in the last 12 months, the court can make you do community work without asking you more questions.

You will get a copy of the request to make you do community work. If the court can’t give you this copy or you don’t show up to court, they might send someone to arrest you and bring you to court.

The person sent to arrest you doesn’t have to do it right away if they think you can’t be brought to court within three days.

If you pay what you owe, the arrest order will stop working.

Being ordered to do community work is like being sentenced after being found guilty of a crime.

You can appeal to the High Court if you don’t agree with the order to do community work.

Doing community work doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay what you owe anymore.

The court can treat this situation as if they were sending you to jail, even though they’re not.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM257054.

Topics:
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
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Part 11 Enforcement provisions
Provisions as to enforcement of financial support liability

196Contempt procedures

  1. Where, upon completion of an examination under section 190, the District Court or Family Court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the liable person has or has had sufficient means to pay any money payable under this Act but has refused or failed to do so and that other methods of enforcing payment under this Part have been considered or tried and it appears to the court that they are inappropriate or have been unsuccessful, the court may order the liable person to do community work for a number of hours, not exceeding 400 hours, as the court thinks fit.

  2. Where the Commissioner is satisfied that a liable person who is liable to pay financial support under this Act has refused or failed to do so, the Commissioner may apply to the District Court or Family Court, with sufficient supporting evidence of default, to have the liable person dealt with pursuant to subsection (1).

  3. Where, upon an application made to it under subsection (2), the District Court or Family Court is satisfied that the liable person has, within 12 months immediately preceding the application, been examined or received a summons to attend an examination under section 190, the court may proceed in all respects as if subsection (1) applied.

  4. A copy of the application and evidence referred to in subsection (2) shall be served on the liable person.

  5. If a copy of the application and evidence referred to in subsection (2) cannot be served on the liable person or if the liable person fails to appear at the hearing of the application, the District Court or Family Court may issue a warrant to arrest the person and bring the person before the court as soon as possible.

  6. A person to whom a warrant under subsection (5) is issued may execute it forthwith but shall not be obliged to do so if that person believes that the liable person to be arrested cannot be brought before the District Court or Family Court within 72 hours after his or her arrest.

  7. A warrant under subsection (5) shall cease to have effect if the amount due under this Act is paid.

  8. An order made under subsection (1) shall have effect as if the liable person, following conviction, had been sentenced to community work.

  9. Where the District Court or Family Court, acting under this section, orders a liable person to do community work, the person shall have the same right of appeal to the High Court against the order as the person would have had if the person had been convicted and sentenced by the District Court.

  10. Doing community work under this section shall not operate to extinguish or affect the liability of the respondent under this Act.

  11. Section 30 of the Sentencing Act 2002 applies in relation to this section as if the District Court were imposing a sentence of imprisonment.

Compare
Notes
  • Section 196(1): amended, on , by section 186 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).
  • Section 196(8): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
  • Section 196(8): amended, on , by section 186 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).
  • Section 196(9): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).
  • Section 196(9): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
  • Section 196(9): amended, on , by section 186 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).
  • Section 196(10): amended, on , by section 186 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).
  • Section 196(11): substituted, on , by section 186 of the Sentencing Act 2002 (2002 No 9).