Chicago DUI lawyer comments on the increase in child support payments due to driver's license suspensions

This Chicago DUI lawyer spends a lot of time in court. When I'm not in court, it may come as a bit of a surprise, but I do what I can to decrease my carbon foot print. That means I walk instead of drive as much as I can manange. Today was a lovely day in Chicago but as I walked I was stopped a couple of times today. Once I was stopped by a mortician. The next time I was flagged down by the ice cream man. I told both of them that they would make their lives far more difficult if they got caught driving without a valid license.

In these dire economic times it is very difficult to convince someone who has a job to give it up just because they don't have a valid driver's license. Yet the list has gotten longer and longer for all of the reasons you can't drive, including child support payments.

August 1, Springfield, IL

During bleak times for state government, news that child-support collections are on the right track is a bright spot — even if it’s not a completely feel-good tale.

The state’s system for collecting and distributing child-support payments to custodial parents imploded nearly a decade ago, when a new system caused major delays that forced reform.

Those improvements have sent collection numbers soaring. After five years in a row of record collections, the total collected came to nearly $1.4 billion in the just-completed budget year.

Lowry, whose office falls under the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, credits several factors for the turnaround.

Regulations suspending driver’s licenses and passports, freezing bank accounts and blocking the issuance of hunting and fishing permits have forced more parents to pay up.

Driver’s license suspensions were possible for non-payers by court order in the past. But a 2007 law gave DHFS the power to directly order suspensions, carried out by the secretary of state’s office.

Nearly 3,100 orders were issued in 2008, and halfway through 2009, that number had climbed to nearly 6,000, said secretary of state spokesman Henry Haupt. Parents have to set up payment plans to get those suspensions lifted.

Lowry said the state has collected nearly $50 million from driver and hunting licensing restrictions — money custodial parents otherwise probably would never have seen.

I just don't know if there is a Catch-22 created for non-custodial parents who drive for a living if their driving privileges are suspended.