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Senate Bill 355 |
Senate Author: West |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
House Sponsor: Lewis |
Senate Bill 355 amends Family Code provisions relating to marriage licenses, protective orders, and child support to update and clarify the duties of the office of the attorney general. The bill removes a requirement that the premarital handbook developed by the child support division of the office of the attorney general be distributed to each marriage license applicant and instead requires a county clerk to inform each applicant of the online availability of the handbook or the process to obtain a paper copy. The bill requires an application for a protective order against family violence to state whether an applicant is receiving child support services from the office of the attorney general and, if the applicant is receiving such services, requires a copy of the order to be sent to the office of the attorney general. The bill also adds a statewide electronic filing system fund fee to the fees that may not be charged to the office of the attorney general or a private attorney or political subdivision that has entered into a contract to provide child support services.
Senate Bill 355 requires the office of the attorney general to make certain required income withholding for child support forms available to clerks of the court and requires the forms to be used for an order or judicial writ of income withholding and to request voluntary withholding. The bill requires an employer to remit all child support payments withheld from an employee's income to the state disbursement unit and authorizes the state disbursement unit to impose a payment processing surcharge of not more than $25 for each such remittance that is not made by electronic funds transfer or electronic data interchange. The bill removes the requirement that the office of the attorney general notify the courts that the state disbursement unit has been established and revises related provisions regarding a notice of place of payment.
Senate Bill 355 authorizes the office of the attorney general, in determining the appropriate amount of child support, to consider evidence of the factors a court is required to consider in determining whether application of the child support guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate. If a determination is made to deviate from the guidelines, the child support review order must include the findings required to be made by a court in rendering a child support order. The bill authorizes, rather than requires, the office of the attorney general to file an appropriate child support review order under specified conditions and establishes that, if a party files a motion for a new trial for reconsideration of an agreed child support review order and the court grants the motion, the agreed review order filed with the clerk constitutes a sufficient pleading by the office of the attorney general for relief on any issue addressed in the order. Finally, the bill specifies that, in the enforcement or modification of a child support order, the office of the attorney general is not subject to a mediation or arbitration clause or requirement in the order to which the office of the attorney general was not a party and is not liable for any costs associated with mediation or arbitration arising from provisions in the order or another agreement of the parties.