Child maintenance, non-payment, consequences
There were numerous factors that can affect how much child maintenance you should pay or receive and we always advise that you contact us first to discuss your specific circumstances.
You should bear in mind that the child maintenance that is payable differs from country to country and it is quite possible that a claim can be lodged in the country in which the mother or the father or the child lives even if you do not live in the same country. If your family members live in different countries then maybe there is jurisdiction in more than one country.
Bulgarian Family Lawyer, Divorce, Child Maintenance and Custody
family divorce lawyer Bulgaria
Payment of child maintenance is the transfer of funds (money) from one person to another who needs them, and between them there is a family relationship.
The size of mountly payments – child maintenence has been declared and well described in the court desicion for divorce between the parents. Usually the childrens needs to be supprted in a case of divorce.
When someone is ordered to pay maintenance by an enforceable court decision but does not comply with that decision, ie he continues not to pay the maintenance of the person entitled to receive it, this may lead to unfavorable consequences.
One of these consequences is the possibility of an enforcement case being brought against him and the other being a criminal conviction, since the non-payment of maintenance for more than two months is a crime under the Penal Code.
When an enforcement case is instituted, the due date may be collected by compulsion by a state or private enforcement agent. If the debtor fails to pay after being invited to do so voluntarily, the judge may, at the request of the person entitled to maintenance (the claimant in the case), impose a distraint on his remuneration (the employer to withhold his money), the custody of the bank his bills (no money), a car or foreclosure on his real estate (prohibition to sell it), which may be in force until the lifting of the maintenance obligation, which may last for years.
In this case, the unpaid maintenance obligation is supplemented by the fees for initiating the enforcement case, fees for individual enforcement actions, and the amount of lawyer’s fees (the lawyer’s money has been filed and the case has been filed with the bailiff ).
The end result in this case is significantly increasing the cost of the debtor (neplatiliya maintenance ), which may go beyond sheer size of unpaid maintenance.
The non-payment of maintenance may also be due to an objective impossibility on the part of the debtor (illness, lack of work and means) and not to his unwillingness to pay such.
Child maintenance, non-payment, consequences
Where such an impossibility is established in the enforcement case, the payment is made by the State which is a substitute for the person who has been ordered to pay the maintenance, but fails to fulfill that obligation.
Whether or not an enforcement action has been initiated, a pre-trial proceeding may be initiated at the request of the entitled person or his legal representative for a criminal offense of a general nature and an indictment of a prosecutor may be brought before a court for a crime under Art. 183 para. 1 of the Penal Code – non-payment of maintenance for two or more monthly installments.
The punishment that the law provides is imprisonment of up to one year or probation . It is common practice for the accused to be sentenced to imprisonment, with the court postponing the execution of the sentence ( conditional conviction).
A conditional conviction, although not often regarded as a “real” punishment, is actually quite a serious consequence of the criminal liability and can have extremely severe consequences for the convict.
*We advice you to brought the child maintenance cases with our family lawyers, just to get a full protection of your and of the children’s interests.
