1. The District Attorney’s Role

The District Attorney’s office is responsible for establishing, monitoring, and enforcing child-support orders in both welfare and non-welfare cases. (Welfare and Institutions Code 11475.1).

The District Attorney ("DA") can bring an action to establish paternity and set child support. A judgment can be entered after a noticed motion to the defendant.

The DA’s office can obtain confidential information from financial institutions. The DA can make these inquiries without informing the person subject to these inquiries.

The interesting part is that the DA is theoretically not the support recipient’s "attorney" in support enforcement cases. (Welfare and Institutions Code 11478.2(a)). The practical effect is, however, that the support recipient receives services for free.

2. Defendant’s Exposure

When aid is paid to the custodial parent for the support of a child due to desertion by a parent, that missing parent, i.e. the non-custodial parent, will owe the DA’s office the amount that would have been ordered under the existing child support guidelines. The amount ordered can exceed the amount of aid that the custodial parent had received while on assistance. The excess can be distributed to the custodial parent. Second, the amount is not limited to the parent’s reasonable ability to pay. (Welfare and Institutions Code 11350).

Defendants who owe support arrearages are subject to the state and federal tax intercept for money owed.

3. Statistics for San Diego County

At a speech before family law attorneys, Paul J. Pfingst, San Diego’s District Attorney, quoted the following eye-opening statistics:

• In 95% of the family law cases involving the DA in San Diego County, the mother is the
custodial parent.

• San Diego County had a backlog of approximately 60,000 cases with approximately 5000
new cases being referred every month at the beginning of the new year.

• The DA is committed to reducing that amount. If the county can initiate its new case
within 20 days, San Diego can receive bonus money from the Federal government, which
can amount to 11% to 16% of the gross revenue. Given a gross revenue last year
approximating $40 million, the rewards for compliance can be substantial.