Protecting Your Spouse’s Assets: Child Support Enforcement
When you remarry, can child support enforcement put a lien on your new spouse’s property? I’m Tulsa Attorney James Wirth. Today’s question has to deal with child support enforcement. So you have a prior relationship where you’ve got a child support obligation, they’re alleging an arrearage, and they’re trying to get at your assets. There’s a lot of ways they can do that. I mean, they could file a contempt citation against you. They could put a levy on your bank account. They could garnish your wages. They could put a lien on real property and other things.
But this question deals with if you remarry, can they go after your spouse the same way they go after you? And the answer is no, but maybe. So clearly, they cannot go after your spouse. The obligation is yours and not your spouse’s. But how you title and handle your assets makes a difference on whether they can go after your spouse’s.
Keeping Assets Separate
So if your spouse has real property that is only in their name and has not been commingled, you know, you’re not on the title, you’re not on the note, you’re not on anything, they would not be able to place a lien on that. If they have a bank account that’s only in their name, it’s got their money in it, then they would not be able to levy that bank account.
However, if you get a joint account with them, they start putting their direct deposit money from their job into that joint account that also has your name on it, even if 90% of the money in that account is your spouse’s, if your name is on it, that means that you have the right to take all that money out, which means DHS Child Support Enforcement, if they’re garnishing you and levying you, can levy all that money out as well.
Seeking Legal Advice
So as long as you keep the assets completely separate, your debt is yours, not your spouse’s. You just gotta be careful how you handle those and not to commingle those. So hopefully that answers the question that the person had there. If you’ve got a question about family law in the state of Oklahoma, contact us, we can help you with that. It’s best to get legal advice by talking to somebody directly, giving all the information out so that you can get full legal advice. To get that schedule, somebody at my office, you can go online to MakeLawEasy.com.
Contact Us for a Strategy Session
If you have any questions or concerns regarding child support enforcement or any other family law matter in the state of Oklahoma, we offer an initial strategy session. Visit our website at MakeLawEasy.com to schedule an appointment with someone from our office. We are here to help you navigate through any legal challenges you may face.
