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Mass. high court hears whether DOR can enforce repayment after retroactive termination of child support
Summary
At oral argument in SJC 13687, the Department of Revenue urged justices that its child-support enforcement powers do not extend to collections for debts created by a retroactive termination of an order; the parent seeking repayment argued the money remains tied to child-support obligations and DOR should enforce recovery.
The Supreme Judicial Court on Monday heard arguments in SJC-13687 over whether the Massachusetts Department of Revenue(DOR) may use its child-support enforcement powers to collect money a court later ruled should not have been ordered as child support.
At oral argument, David Kravitz, an attorney for the DOR Child Support Enforcement Division, told the court the agency's statutory remedies"range from wage assignment to liens, levies, attaching assets, driver's licenses, passports" and "are all devoted to the enforcement of child support orders." He said those remedies are "cabined" to enforcement of support and therefore do not reach a debt created by a retroactive termination of a support order.
The question reached the high court after a probate and family court judge entered a retroactive termination that, according to the parties' filings, produced a substantial judgment in favor of the obligor. The obligor and a separate pro se party who says she paid into the account dispute how much is owed and…
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