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TO CONTEMPT OR NOT TO CONTEMPT (Civil Contempts)

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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 tlove@co.shasta.ca.us John R. Berglund, Chief Attorney Shasta County Dept. of Child Support Services jberglund@co.shasta.ca.us

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