What impact will the Pasqua case have on “ability to pay hearings”?
Pasqua is a landmark case. The decision marks a change in the law with regard to child support enforcement. Before the Pasqua case, in my opinion Probation and the courts were over zealous in their never-ending pursuit to enforce the payment of child support. For example, driver’s licenses were being suspended for the failure to pay child support. However, neither Probation nor the court would provide the payor with any type of notice. A payor would often be stopped for unknowingly driving while suspended. Moreover, arrest warrants would be issued even if the payor would get hurt at work and could no longer make his child support payments. In summary, each and every year the child support enforcement laws have become more onerous, and in many ways more unfair. The Pasqua case is a strong indication that this trend may be changing, or at least slowing down some. The main point of the Pasqua case is that a parent who has difficulty keeping up with his child support payments also has some
