court family-law children new-jersey payment
Can direct payments around the court harm a divorce case?
<p>During a divorce proceeding the court ordered the father to pay 1xxx a month in child support through the court/state supervision arrangement.</p>

<p>The mother is living away from the father with the child. However, the father is refusing to pay via the court and has not paid anything yet. It's been over a month.</p>

<p>The father sent the mother some cash via Western Union and texted the mother to go get the money. The amount is about 1/3 of the total monthly amount ordered.</p>

<p>The mother is in dire need of the money and is nearly homeless with bills to pay with that money.</p>

<p>Enforcing a payment via the court takes a long time.</p>

<p>Will it harm the case if the mother retrieves the money? assuming she notifies the court or her attorney? Or should she refuse the money?</p>

<p>Refusing the money means that she won't have food/electricity/gas money as the money needs are that dire.</p>

<p><em>Disclaimer: I don't know the specific regulations of New Jersey, so this mostly describes the general practise in the United States. However, it seems the rules are roughly similar in all states.</em></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>During a divorce proceeding the court ordered the father to pay 1xxx a
  month in child support through the court/state supervision
  arrangement.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This is common in the United States - child support payments are usually not sent directly from one parent to the other, instead the paying parent sends money to a government agency (or has it taken from their wages). This agency is usually called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Disbursement_Unit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">State Disbursement Unit</a> - though in New Jersey the agency responsible is the <a href="http://www.njchildsupport.org/Services-Programs/Non-Custodial-Parents/Paying-Child-Support" rel="nofollow noreferrer">New Jersey Family Support Payment Center (NJFSPC)</a>. So the father was probably ordered to pay via NJFSPC.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Will it harm the case if the mother retrieves the money? assuming she
  notifies the court or her attorney? Or should she refuse the money?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No, this should not harm the case. As you write, the mother should definitely inform the court and / or NJFSPC about the payment (the lawyer should know how to handle this).  If the court order requires the father to pay via NJFSPC, paying directly to the mother is already a violation - so the father is likely not acting legally.</p>

<p>While the accepted payment will likely count against the child support owed, it will not reduce the claim for child support in any other way - in particular it does not invalidate or reduce the court order to pay via NJFSPC.</p>
