Child support is a legal obligation in Maryland. This means that a parent who is required to pay can be held legally responsible–and possibly jailed–for failing to meet their financial support obligations. This means, among other things, that a parent cannot avoid paying child support simply by refusing to work.

But what if a parent is unable to work and earn a living because they are presently incarcerated? Maryland law does carve out limited protection for parents who are in jail. Specifically, a child support payment will not be considered “past due” during any period where a parent is incarcerated provided all of the following conditions are met:

• The parent was sentenced to a prison term of at least 180 consecutive days;
• The parent is not on work release and has insufficient resources to pay child support; and
• The parent is not in jail because they committed a crime to get themselves thrown in jail so they could get out of paying child support.

It is important to note that even when a parent meets these conditions, being in jail does not wipe out all child support obligations. It simply means that a missed payment will not be considered “past due” or accrue while the parents are in jail, and continuing for 60 days following their release.

Father Receives Credit for Original Jail Sentence But Not for Probation Violation

A recent unpublished decision from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, R.B.G. v. R.V.G., provides a practical example of how this law is applied in practice. In this case, a father filed a petition to modify his existing child support obligations. The parents married in 2012 and had one child who was born in 2015.

In 2016, police arrested the father after he allegedly assaulted the mother in their house. The mother subsequently filed for divorce. The parties agreed that the mother would have sole physical and legal custody of the child. A Maryland judge subsequently ratified this custody arrangement and granted an absolute divorce. The divorce judgment also required the father to pay $632 per month in child support.

In 2017, the father pleaded guilty to the previously mentioned assault charge. The judge in the criminal case sentenced the defendant to 10 years in prison, but suspended all but 18 months. The father ultimately served 8.5 months before he was released. He later spent an additional 153 days in jail for violating the terms of his probation.

In his petition to modify support, the father sought among other relief credit for the time he spent in jail towards his back-owed child support. The trial court granted credit with respect to the 8.5 months of his original sentence, but not the 153 days on the probation violation. The Court of Special Appeals upheld this ruling, noting that the statute only permits credit for at least 180 “consecutive” days in jail, and obviously 153 is less than 180.

Contact Waldorf Family Law Attorney Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions contact our office to speak to an experienced lawyer at (301) 870-1200.

Source:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13446740888642052900