§ 680.145.Child Support

Family court orders do not always separate child support from spousal support into two clean categories. Many orders combine both into a single "family support" obligation, particularly where doing so has tax or administrative advantages for the parties. This section makes sure that combined category is not left out of protections written specifically for "child support."

The Enforcement of Judgments Law treats support judgments differently from ordinary money judgments in several respects -- for example, support judgments generally do not expire the way other money judgments do, and enforcement remedies for support arrears can be more aggressive. By folding family support into the definition of child support, this section makes sure those support-specific rules reach the full range of court-ordered support obligations, not just orders that use the words "child support" explicitly.