What Does it Mean to Open a California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) Case?
Generally, each county in California has a Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) governmental agency designed to wither establish, enforce, or modify child support support orders. There are 2 types of cases opened by DCSS: Public assistance (i.e. Welfare) and Non-Public Assistance. If you receive public assistance, you have automatically assigned to DCSS or the State of California your right to receive some or all of you current and past-due child support. In other words, you may be receiving Public Assistance but the agency from whom you are receiving such assistance will go after the supporting parent to get reimbursement for such assistance. For Non-Public Assistance, you can open up a DCSS case to establish a child support order (generally in situations where non-marital parents are involved) or to enforce a child support order made in a divorce or legal separation case. The benefit of opening a DCSS case to enforce a child support order is that DCSS is a part of the statewid
