F&F: Child Support Scare Tactic Stopped

Article here. Excerpt:

'For more than 20 years, the South Carolina Department of Social Services used false contempt of court threat to scare parents behind on their child support. It would issue a summons to appear for a hearing and pointedly remind the parent that he or she could be held in contempt of court for failure to pay.

Of course, it was an empty threat. No judge was present. It was not a judicial proceeding. Nobody could be held in contempt. The scare it placed in child support obligors who received it, however, was real. And yes, it skirted, if it not violated, all notions of due process.

One father questioned this practice. Because of his lawsuit, this scare tactic has been stopped.'