LIBERTY, Mo. — There are nearly 5,000 open cases involving non-payment of child support in Clay County at any given time.
But for the eighth straight year, the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office has a plan to try to reduce those numbers through its child-support warrant amnesty program.
“The goal of our nonsupport department inside this office is to make sure kids get the support they need and deserve,” Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said.
Only a fraction of Clay County’s thousands of child-support cases involve active civil or criminal warrants, but the annual Warrant Amnesty Program, which Clay County started in 2017, aims to re-engage long-term offenders.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Grant Kelley oversees the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office’s Family Support Division and said the program has helped resolve hundreds of cases.
“That’s some significant progress on those cases, so we’re getting a lot of progress as far as the warrants that are outstanding and it’s really putting a lot of money in the families of custodial parents and families that are out there,” Kelley said.
Clay County sent 224 letters to people in July with warrants — 90 related to civil cases and 134 for criminal cases — for their outstanding child-support debts, which the court calls arrearages.
Attorney Paemon Aramjoo said the program provides an opportunity people should consider even if they are fearful of the legal process.
“If I got a letter and a child-support amount has a huge arrearage, we have to really strongly consider working with the prosecutor's office, working with the courts to make sure that we can handle this situation proactively,” he said.
Aramjoo has had clients take advantage of the Warrant Amnesty Program and worked as a mediator, helping resolve disputes and work toward an amicable solution to sometimes testy child-support cases.
“The goal I think, and I'll speak for the court in this regard — the goal is not to hold people down,” Aramjoo said. “It's to help people get back to a position where they can financially contribute and get back on their feet.”
Aramjoo refers to the program as a “carrot” from the prosecutor’s office, which is preferable to the “stick” of going to jail — with the primary goal of helping Clay County’s kids.
“I can’t think of work that’s more important, honestly,” Kelley said. “It’s a privilege to be able to be a part of ensuring that support gets into the hands of the folks who need it.”
The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office can’t erase accrued child-support debt nor can they modify a court-ordered child-support plan, but they can — with a good-faith payment and some sincere effort — help people get back on track. They also have resources that can educate people about the modification process.
“This is not a freebie,” Thompson said. “This is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. This is an opportunity to re-engage with the criminal-court process or the civil-court process to help you meet your obligations. Our focus is making sure that kids and families have the support they need to thrive. That is our focus. We have a vested interest in making that happen, they have a vested interest in having that warrant removed, so everybody wins in this scenario."
The program coincides with National Child Support Enforcement Month in August.
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