Presented By: Terri Love, Director Shasta County Department of
Child Support Services John R. Berglund, Chief Attorney Shasta
County Department of Child Support Services
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Shasta County County Seat Redding, CA County Population 179,000
Rural, Flat Valley Surrounded by Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and
Coastal Mountain Ranges Caseload 13,000 Distributed Collections -
$19m
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What Should We Think About Before Filing A Civil Contempt
Action? Legal Issues? Policy Issues? Cost Effectiveness?
Probability of Success? Customer Service Issues?
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Legal Elements (CCP 1209.5) 1.Proof of Order Made and Filed
Take Judicial Notice Pursuant to Evidence Code 452 and 453 2. Proof
Order Served or Obligor Present in Court Take Judicial Notice Other
Proof Obligor Had Knowledge of Order
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Legal Elements (Continued) 3. Proof Obligor Did Not Comply with
Order Offer of Proof Witness Testimony (Rarely Needed)
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Not An Element for LCSAs Obligors Ability to Pay Obligor Has
Burden Pursuant to California Supreme Court (Moss v. Superior Court
(1988) 17 Cal.4 th 396)
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Statute of Limitations (CCP 1218.5) Current Support Three Years
All Other Orders Two years
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Policy Questions What Enforcement Efforts Should Take Place
First? Seek Work Orders? Orders for Examination of Judgment
Debtors? Other?
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Policy Questions (Continued) How Many Months of Nonpayment
Required before Filing? What if Obligor Makes Partial Payments? Is
Current Support Policy Different than Arrears? Do You Contempt for
Other Terms in Orders?
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Cost Effectiveness Are Civil Contempts Cost Effective? Compared
to What? Can They Be Targeted to Be More Cost Effective?
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Probability of Success What is Success? Overall Collections Go
Up in the Case? Lump Sum Purge Received? FPMs Benefited? Case
Closed (Obligor Gets SSI, Etc.)? Can We Try to Predict It? Should
We? How?
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Customer Service Issues From Obligee Perspective: Do we
contempt even when success seems unlikely? If not, then what? From
Obligor Perspective: Have we addressed possible reasons for
noncompliance, e.g., order is too high?
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Shasta DCSSs Contempt Study Trying to Predict Success 424 Civil
Contempt Cases Analyzed (Three Years of Filings) Which Types of
Cases Lead to Payments? Which Types of Cases Dont?
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Parameters to Study Contempt Action Actually Served on Obligor
Case Open for More than One Year Payments Totaled for One Year
Prior Payments Totaled for One Year After Compare Before and
After
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How Was Study Completed? Management Planned and Directed Cases
Identified and Entered on Spreadsheet Child Support Assistants
Transferred Data from CSE on to Spreadsheet Child Support
Specialists Did Case Research for Analytical Questions
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Key Results Overall 15% of Obligors Made Lump Sum Purge
Payments Overall Collections Increased 75% for the 424 Cases in
Year after Filing (Average Payment from $595 - $1,036) Causal
Connection? (Shastas Overall Collections Were Down During the Three
Years Studied)
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Key Results Incarceration Obligors with Incarceration History
in CSE Paid Slightly Less in Year after Filing Never Incarcerated
Obligors Paid 82% More What Do We Do with These Findings?
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Key Results Self-Employed More Self-Employed Obligors Made Lump
Sum Payments than Others (25% - 14%) Self-Employed Lump Sum
Payments Averaged More than Twice as Much ($2,032 - $1,108)
Self-Employed Obligors Attended Arraignments More often than Others
(78% - 54%)
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Key Results Number of Children Payments Increased 92% for
Obligors with One Child in the Orders Payments Increased 89% for
Obligors with Two Children in the Orders Payments Decreased 3% for
Obligors with Three or More Children in the Orders Can This
Information Be Useful? How?
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Key Results Geographic Issues Obligors Who Lived in Redding
Paid 13% More than Obligors Who Lived in Shasta Countys
Unincorporated Areas Obligors Who Lived Outside of Shasta County
Paid 63% More than Those Who Lived in Redding Do You Have Economic
Disparities within Your County? Can This Information Be Useful?
How?
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Final Questions Should Other Factors Be Analyzed? Which Ones?
What Do You Do with the Results?
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Terri Love, Director Shasta County Dept. of Child Support
Services [email protected] John R. Berglund, Chief Attorney
Shasta County Dept. of Child Support Services
[email protected]