Dad refuses to pay support

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

My daughter is now five years old and I have been back and forth in the Family Court with her dad since she was born. Every order that has been made for him to pay, he has ignored, and always has some sob story to tell the court whenever he is summoned back. I have never gotten a dime from him, and he is using the system to drag things out. He has never been reprimanded or anything, because he is quick with the lies and is a persuasive storyteller. I feel like giving up the fight. What can I do to force him to pay his child maintenance? He also received access but has never once taken our child to spend time with him either.

The father of your child is clearly a deadbeat dad and seems to be wilfully and intentionally refusing to pay maintenance, and it is for the judges presiding in the court to ensure that the orders are obeyed. After you, the person in whose favour the order was made files an application about the disobedience of the order, a summons would be issued for the father to attend court and show cause why he should not be arrested or serve a term of imprisonment.

Courts act in this way to enforce obedience of orders every day. Judges have the power to order that the disobedient party be imprisoned until the payments are paid up, or for a warrant of distress to be issued to permit their assets of value to be seized by the bailiff and sold, or stand the matter down for the end of the day of the hearing, while he is held in custody so he can make calls to arrange for the sums owed or a good part of them to be brought on his behalf, and enable him to proffer the money when the matter is recalled. The judge will warn the respondent not to fail to make the payments as ordered again or face actual imprisonment. This is done regularly in Family Courts all over Jamaica every day.

If only a part of what is owed is what the respondent has arranged to be brought to the court, the clerk will also receive and record it, and the judge will then decide on what other date the respondent should again appear and pay further sums until the entire backlog is paid. He would be warned each time that while doing so, he must ensure that he is making his current payments or face imprisonment. The judge may order that his payments be made to the collecting officer of the court, so irrefutable records of his payments are there and then available for the judge’s use in making orders appropriate to ensure obedience of the substantive order made for the maintenance of the subject child or children. This is absolutely necessary, otherwise it would clearly adversely affect the administration of justice for any judge to permit wilful, intentional, neglectful or reckless disregard by a respondent to persistently fail to obey the court’s orders, especially for the maintenance of children.

This is why I find your letter and all the others I have received about such despicable conduct shocking. You make it clear that the father is manipulating the system and dragging things out to frustrate you, so much so that you are even thinking of giving up your struggle, which is clearly what he wants you to do. Please do not do this.

I apologise for the failure of the judge or judges who have failed you and failed in their duty to take steps to enforce the orders made in their court for the maintenance of your child. It seems clear that they have also failed to uphold their oaths by failing to exercise the powers the Maintenance Act gives to them to enforce the maintenance orders. Each time the judge presiding has permitted this man to leave the court without taking any of the steps spelt out in Section 15 of the Act, they have failed in their duty and have been complicit with this man, who clearly has no respect for the law and courts of Jamaica.

Section 15 of the Maintenance Act empowers a judge for the enforcement of maintenance orders to do any of the following:- to have any property of value owned by the defendant to be transferred to be held in trust by you for your child absolutely or otherwise, for instance a motor vehicle or real property; or by creating a charge on any of his property or make an order of attachment for any pension or income of the defendant/respondent to be attached and paid to the beneficiary of the order; or for his employer be ordered to make a written return to the court showing the father’s income/emoluments for the preceding 12 months. It may make an order for attachment from his income/emoluments to be deducted by the employer and paid over to the court; or make an order committing him to imprisonment and make it understood that any term served does not erase or decrease his judgement debt. A collecting officer’s order can also be made with specifics that he whole debt or peroidic sums be paid to the officer as well as the ongoing periodic sums as originally ordered

There is no limitation of the time for proceedings for the enforcement of the payment of sums due under a maintenance order. These things are ordered and done every day in the courts and it is terrible and unfair that you and your child have not received your lawful and just dues.

So what can you do in these circumstances when the judicial officer with copious legal powers fails to prevent what is happening to you? I strongly urge you to do what has worked from my experience over many years.

You must appeal to the head of the judiciary in these circumstances as you and your child both have been repeatedly failed and wronged by the judge(s) presiding in your Family Court. You therefore must write to the Chief Justice of Jamaica at the Supreme Court, Public Buildings, King Street, Kingston, and include a copy of the original maintenance order, and detail the father’s failure to make any payment. State each date when you, having reported his disobedience, have attended court and fully relate what the judge presiding on those dates stated on each and every such occasion. Name the judge or judges who have failed to enforce the order for your child’s support. You must also report how you have felt and what the effect has been on yours and your child’s lives of the continuing disobedience of the original and continuing maintenance orders on your financial and daily lives and upon your emotional and psychological health.

You have the right to do this and I truly believe as long as you give all the details to Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, he would act on it and act quickly. If you are correct about the conduct of the judge(s) in not enforcing your order, then such a judge or judges should not be in that court or any other for that matter. Their handling of your matter must be investigated by the head judge and if his findings are in line with your conclusions about the father using the system to drag things on and on and deny your child’s legal entitlements, then he would act and act decisively.

If for any inexplicable reason your letter fails to get the chief justice to act, then please write to the editors of our daily newspapers about your experience, or call a radio talk show, about the fact that your letter to the chief justice has not borne any fruit. They can assist by publishing the facts of the failures which have occurred in your matter, and to the administration of justice in Jamaica that has been to the detriment of and contrary to a minor child’s best interests.

The issue of the administration of justice in Jamaica is a fundamental matter of public interest for all citizens and residents here.

All the very best to you both.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide private, personal responses.