LIABILITY ORDERS

The first stage of legal enforcement undertaken by CSA, will be an application to court for a Liability Order.  In many cases CSA will imply that there is no need for you to attend court as the order will be granted irrespective of any information you may wish to present.   If there is any reason to doubt the alleged debt we strongly encourage clients to attend.  We now offer the support of attending court with you for a small fee. (subject to availability)

A Liability Orders has to be granted before the Child Support Agency (CSA) or CMEC as now known, can enforce any debt by way of court based enforcement measures, such as bailiffs , charging orders, Order of Sale etc.

CSA may threaten you with bailiffs, and even that they will put you in prison if you do not pay the debt at the  repayment level they  demand – but they cannot carry out any such action without first securing a Liability Order through the courts.  The comments are designed to frighten you into paying without question.

However, do not be complacent!! CSA have extensive powers and they will use them to pursue repayment.   If you dispute the debt, there is a process that needs to be followed and you have limited time to do this.  It is important to resolve the issue and not assume that they will leave you alone.

Liability Orders are currently granted by a Magistrates Court., but this is due to change under new legislation.  CSA will no longer have to apply to the courts to grant the order.  These are known as Administrative Liability Orders. Details of any appeals process against an administrative liability order are not yet known, but we expect them to be limited as with appeal rights of a Deduction from Earnings Order.

We have encountered a number of cases where pre 2000 debt has been attempted within a liability order application.

The public must apply the following groundwork for any threat of enforcement action to be taken:

1. Ensure that a full arrears breakdown is requested.  This is the only way to verify the accuracy of any debt. (if you are a subscriber, we can check these statements for you).

2. You are legally entitled to a  Notice of Intention to apply for a Liability Order. This should be served 7 days before the application for a liability order is made. The Notice of Intention letter will include two dates – ensure that the date is no earlier than 13 July 2000.

3. Compare the debt total as stated in the Notice of Intention letter, against the total in the summons and ensure there are no debts from pre 2000 being used in the application.

4. If you dispute the debt, at all costs you must attend the hearing.   CSA officers will often dismiss the importance of these hearings, and convince you that attendance is not necessary. DO NOT be fooled into not attending, or leaving early if you do attend and the CSA officer try to convince you not to stay.  If you wish to contest the order – attendance is absolutely vital.

For assistance with verification of debt, and how to defend against a liability order application, you would need to become a subscriber to NACSA to allow us to support you through the process.