COLA Time in child support
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009No, not the soft drink that we all know and love … COLA in child support language means Cost Of Living Adjustment. Minnesota is one of only three states, Virginia and New Mexico are the others, that has a state law requiring that all child support orders (and also spousal maintenance orders, as long as there is still a valid child support obligation) are subject to a biennial cost of living increase. Good news for payees, sometimes not so good news for payors.
Right now is COLA season. We all get lists of cases that are due for the COLA and we manually have to check all those cases to make sure the COLA is set to run correctly. Once we have done that we let the system figure out how much the COLA adjustment is for each case and later this month, the payees and the payors will each get the notice telling them about the increase. Of course, the payors do get an opportunity to contest the COLA if they themselves have not received a comparable increase in their wages the past couple of years. Normally, I get a handful of calls with questions about the options available to contest the COLA and occasionally someone will decide to follow through with the action and request a hearing. I suspect this year, with the economic crisis, will be much busier and we will receive more than the usual number of motions to stop the COLA. If there is no objection to the cost of living increase, the payees will see the new amounts beginning May 1.
So if you’re paying or receiving child support in Minnesota and it’s your year for an increase in the obligation, you can expect to get your notice within the next couple of weeks. Remember, if you’re the payor, you do have the option to file a motion to contest this COLA so if you feel you cannot afford the increase, just call your child support worker for information. Court forms for Minnesota can also be downloaded online at www.mncourts.gov.
Let’s all believe that next year at this time the economy will be on the road to recovery. Keep thinking those positive thoughts and … keep vibrating!
