This should be a huge can of worms.
More protection for the
vulnerable for a start.
If a judge orders maintenance for a mans
wife and children it should be enforceable and quickly if he refuses to
pay, the judge have the power in law but are reluctant to use them.
Right now if a guy refuses to pay it will take 3-6 months just to
get back to court, if the guy knows the ropes it can be dragged out for a
year even two in some cases more, even when enforcement takes place more
often than not the arrears are just added on leaving the woman back to
square one, again if the guy knows how to play the system he can get the
arrears reduced or scrapped all together.
The two biggest
problems are the time it takes to get back to court and the reluctance by
judges when it comes to actually enforcing payment.
Now another
problem, a bloke is ordered to pay, the bloke refuses, it goes back to
court and the judge orders attachment of earnings, great its over, wrong
Before the attachment is made a
protected earnings level must be set even though this was considered before
the maintenance was ordered, now if you read the family law rules they
state an officer of the court usually a judge will set this level, that
rule is very old though, courts these days use software to set the level,
the software is only as good as the user though, so what can and does
happen is the muppet inputting the data uses the guys stated needs which is
always his entire income, no surprise there then, so the order and the
protected level go to the agency that deals with the attachment, and they
send it straight back as a none implementable attachment.
So you
would think the judge would take a look and say oh its just a mistake, but
no the judge says i made the order its not my problem, and your right back
to square one.
Meanwhile the months are sailing by, the tax
payer is forking out for hearings the judge and all the staff from the
agencies involved, and all the while no maintenance is being payed.