I’m Owed Back Child Support. What Is a Verified Entry of Support Judgment?
When you rely on child support to keep your household running, missed payments create stress fast. Groceries, school supplies, medical bills, and childcare costs don’t stop just because the other parent stops paying. Being owed back child support can leave you feeling frustrated and unsure about what to do next.
Bring your frustrations to us. We can show you how a Verified Entry of Support Judgment can help you collect the support to which your child is entitled. At Plog & Stein P.C., our Denver child support lawyers have a decades-long tradition of helping parents across the Denver metro area recover owed back child support and hold parents who owe it accountable.
How to Get Back Owed Child Support
The first thing you should know is that Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.) section 14-10-122 deems a child support obligation an enforceable judgment as soon as it is due and not paid.
You can get unpaid child support by making a request through the family court or Colorado’s Child Support Services. Sometimes, a crucial part of requesting owed back child support is properly filing and using a Verified Entry of Support Judgment. Filing this entry gives you a tool for enforcing payments and eliminates the 14-day waiting period for executing a judgment.
What Is a Verified Entry of Support Judgment?
A Verified Entry of Support Judgment is a document you file with the court stating:
- How much child support the other parent was ordered to pay, including all previous support modifications:
- How much they actually paid: and
- How much they now owe in arrears, including interest.
Once you file this entry with the proper accompanying documents and the court accepts it, the court treats the arrears amount as a formal and enforceable judgment against the owing parent. This judgment can give you powerful collection rights.
What You Need Before You File
You will need additional documentation and information before filing the Verified Entry of Support Judgment.
Original Child Support Order and All Modified Orders
These documents can help you accurately show every monthly support amount and start date in your case.
Payment History
This history can come from either the Family Support Registry (FSR) if the payments were supposed to go through the state, or your own financial documents and calculations if the payments were supposed to be direct.
The FSR’s system can be a very reliable source, but not everyone uses it. If you did not set up child support payments through the FSR, you may have to perform complex math to calculate the amounts owed to you. Fortunately, you can have a Colorado child support lawyer handle them on your behalf rather than doing it yourself.
Understanding of How Interest Applies to Your Case
Colorado law applies two tiers of interest to owed back child support. If a payment was due and not paid before July 1, 2021, the owing parent owes 12% interest on it, compounded monthly.
If a payment was due and not paid on or after July 1, 2021, the owing parent owes 10% interest, compounded annually. We know how to perform this complex legal calculation to help ensure you receive everything you are owed.
Correct Court Forms
Submitting the correct paperwork is key to maintaining a child support claim with few complications. The Colorado legal forms you will likely need include:
- JDF 1813—Entry of Support Judgment, and
- JDF 1807—Affidavit of Arrears.
With these forms, you will likely need to submit proof of your payment history, such as FSR payment documents, spreadsheets, and financial records. Before you submit these forms, you must sign and declare under penalty of perjury that the information in them is correct.
What to Do After You Complete Your Forms and Compile Your Evidence
After you have properly filled out your forms and attached the proper proof, you need to take the following steps:
- File paperwork with the appropriate Colorado court. You must file your documents in the same court that issued your child support order.
- Serve paperwork on the owing parent. You can serve your paperwork to the parent by mail or through the Colorado Courts E-Filing system. If the other parent disagrees with your declarations, they may object, and the court can set a hearing to resolve the matter.
- Wait for the court to enter the child support judgment. If the owing parent does not object, or their objection lacks merit, the court enters your support judgment. Once that happens, the arrears become a legally enforceable judgment.
The process of enforcing a child support judgment with a Verified Entry of Support Judgment is relatively straightforward; however, precision is crucial. This is where an experienced family law attorney can make a difference.
What Happens After the Judgment Is Entered?
Once the court enters the judgment, you unlock several effective enforcement and collection tools available under Colorado law, including:
- Income assignment or wage garnishment,
- Bank account garnishment
- Liens against the owing parent’s real property, and
- Interception of government benefits.
You may need to serve writs upon employers or third parties with control over the owing parent’s property or income before you can start enforcing your judgment. These steps aren’t easy, and working with an experienced attorney can help you get them right and get paid as soon as possible.
Note that you do not need a Verified Entry of Support Judgment before a government child support enforcement agency can certify past due debts for intercepting an owing parent’s tax refunds or lottery winnings.
Our Colorado Child Support Lawyer Can Get You the Support Your Child Deserves
Child support is not optional. When the owing parent falls behind, the law gives you strong tools to enforce a support order and collect what is owed. But a tool is useful only when you use it effectively—we can show you how.
At Plog & Stein P.C., we provide top-rated advocacy, and our team is experienced, strategic, and practical. We can help you develop the best strategy for protecting yourself and your family while keeping the peace. Contact us online or call us today to schedule a consultation.
