The Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) developed the Child Support Project in order to alleviate problems faced by chronically under or unemployed non-custodial parents whose child support debt makes self-sufficiency difficult to achieve. State-owed child support arrearages present a formidable barrier for many low-income men struggling to get out of poverty and this large debt keeps them in a pattern of temporary, below-ground jobs, unemployment, incarceration, and limited involvement with their families. In conducting this work, LAB stresses the difference between "dead broke" and "dead beat" parents and seeks to help those who are "dead broke" by making child support arrearages manageable.
LAB's Child Support Project tackles this problem in three ways: 1) education/outreach, 2) representation, and 3) policy/impact work. LAB educates and provides outreach to clients of local community groups who help unemployed parents reenter the workforce. LAB also provides representation for individuals in need of legal assistance in the following areas:
Driver's license or occupational license suspensions;
Problems with child support that interfere with employment or educational or training programs;
Problems with child support arrearages owed to the state;
The person owing child support now has custody of the child(ren); and
The parents are back together but child support is still owed to the state.
LAB's impact/policy work has resulted in invitations from the state legislature to testify on issues dealing with child support. By assisting non-custodial parents, LAB seeks to remove barriers that prevent parents from entering the workforce and gaining full-time employment which can prevent parents from financially supporting their child(ren).
Contact Information:
Daniel Hatcher Legal Aid Bureau 500 East Lexington Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 Phone: (410) 539-5340 Fax: (410) 539-1710 dhatcher@mdlab.org
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 
244k) 