BaltimoreChild Support News Headlines

Enhance Child Support Enforcement

The 1996 welfare reform law included the most extensive child support reforms ever enacted. These include new information systems to help locate parents who owe child support, automatic income withholding from paychecks, driver and professional license revocation, and other administrative tools. As shown by increased collection amounts and rates, these reforms have been a great success. Since 1995, collections have increased by nearly 50 percent, rising by over $1 billion a year.

The 1996 reforms also streamlined paternity establishment, particularly voluntary paternity establishment, to encourage fathers to take the first step toward providing their children with financial and emotional support. These provisions have also been extremely successful. Paternity was established in more than 1.5 million cases in FY 1999, a 60 percent increase from 1995. Paternity is now established through in-hospital acknowledgment in nearly half of all non-marital births.

Our Baltimore child support lawyers know and understand your worries and fears. Let them help you to take control. Contact one of our Baltimore child support lawyers today for a free evaluation of your case.

	Did You Know?
	Child support ends on the emancipation of a child. Emancipation, meaning the child coming of age and capable of self-support, is determined under state law. In Massachusetts and Hawaii, for example, that may occur as late as the age of 23, unless a child is incapacitated. Georgia and many of its sister states set the age at 18. Furthermore, each of the 50 states has its own version of the Child Support Guidelines to help calculate an appropriate amount of support in a case.