As used in this article 14, unless the context otherwise requires:
"Court" means any court in this state having jurisdiction to determine the liability ofpersons for the support of another person.
"Delegate child support enforcement unit" means the unit of a county department ofhuman or social services or its contractual agent that is responsible for carrying out the provisions of this article 14. The term "contractual agent" includes a private child support collection agency, operating as an independent contractor with a county department of human or social services, or a district attorney's office, that contracts to provide any services that the delegate child support enforcement unit is required by law to provide.
"Dependent child" means any person who is legally entitled to or the subject of acourt order for the provision of proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical care, or any other care necessary for his health, guidance, or well-being who is not otherwise emancipated, self-supporting, married, or a member of the armed forces of the United States.
"Duty of support" means a duty of support imposed by law or by order, decree, orjudgment of any court, whether interlocutory or final, or whether incidental to an action for divorce, separation, separate maintenance or otherwise. "Duty of support" includes the duty to pay arrearages of support past-due and unpaid.
(4.3) "Employer", for purposes of income withholding pursuant to section 14-5-501, includes any person, company, or corporation, Pinnacol Assurance, or other insurance carrier paying any type of workers' compensation benefits pursuant to articles 40 to 47 of title 8, C.R.S.
"Family support registry" means a central registry maintained and operated by thestate department of human services pursuant to section 26-13-114, C.R.S., that receives, processes, disburses, and maintains a record of the payment of child support, child support when combined with maintenance, maintenance, child support arrears, or child support debt.
(4.7) "Health insurance" means medical insurance or medical and dental insurance coverage or both of human beings against bodily injury or illness. Such coverage may be provided through a parent's employer or may be acquired individually by the parent.
"Obligee" means any person or agency to whom a duty of support is owed or anyperson or agency who has commenced a proceeding for the establishment or enforcement of an alleged duty of support.
"Obligor" means any person owing a duty of support, or against whom a proceedingfor the establishment or enforcement of a duty of support is commenced.
"Plan" means a group health benefit plan or combination of plans, other than publicassistance programs, that provides medical care or benefits for a child. "Plan" includes, but is not limited to, a health maintenance organization, self-funded group, state or local government group health plan, church group plan, medical or health service corporation, or other similar plan.
"Public assistance" means assistance payments and social services provided to or onbehalf of eligible recipients through programs administered or supervised by the state department of human services, either in cooperation with the federal government or independently without federal aid, pursuant to article 2 of title 26, C.R.S.
"Support order" means any judgment, decree, or order of support in favor of an obligee, whether temporary or final or subject to modification, revocation, or remission, regardless of the kind of action or proceeding in which it is entered.
"Wages" means income to an obligor in any form, including, but not limited to,actual gross income; compensation paid or payable for personal services, whether denominated as wages; earnings from an employer; salaries; payment to an independent contractor for labor or services; commissions; tips declared by the individual for purposes of reporting to the federal internal revenue service or tips imputed to bring the employee's gross earnings to the minimum wage for the number of hours worked, whichever is greater; rents; bonuses; severance pay; retirement benefits and pensions, including, but not limited to, those paid pursuant to articles 51, 54, 54.5, and 54.6 of title 24, and article 30 of title 31; workers' compensation benefits; social security benefits, including social security benefits actually received by a parent as a result of the disability of that parent or as the result of the death of the minor child's stepparent, but not including social security benefits received by a minor child or on behalf of a minor child as a result of the death or disability of a stepparent of the child; disability benefits; dividends; royalties; trust account distributions; any moneys drawn by a self-employed individual for personal use; funds held in or payable from any health, accident, disability, or casualty insurance to the extent that such insurance replaces wages or provides income in lieu of wages; monetary gifts; monetary prizes, excluding lottery winnings not required by the rules of the Colorado lottery commission to be paid only at the lottery office; taxable distributions from general partnerships, limited partnerships, closely held corporations, or limited liability companies; interest; trust income; annuities; payments received from a third party to cover the health care cost of the child but which payments have not been applied to cover the child's health care costs; state tax refunds; and capital gains. "Wages", for the purposes of child support enforcement, may also include unemployment compensation benefits, but only subject to the provisions and requirements of section 8-73-102 (5).
Source: L. 81: Entire article added, p. 905, § 1, effective June 8. L. 82: (3) amended, p. 281, § 4, effective April 2. L. 83: (3) amended, p. 651, § 1, effective March 3. L. 84: (9) added, p. 480, § 1, effective July 1. L. 87: (9) amended, p. 596, § 26, effective July 10. L. 89: (9) amended, p. 793, § 17, effective July 1. L. 90: (4.5) added, p. 1414, § 14, effective June 8; (2) and (9) amended, pp. 891, 564, §§ 12, 36, effective July 1. L. 92: (9) amended, p. 578, § 6, effective July 1; (4.7) added, p. 169, § 3, effective August 1. L. 93: (9) amended, p. 1872, § 6, effective June 1. L. 94: (9) amended, p. 1539, § 7, effective May 31; (4.5)(a) and (7) amended, p. 2646, § 109, effective July 1; (9) amended, p. 1253, § 7, effective July 1. L. 96: (4.5) and (9) amended, p. 599, § 9, effective July 1. L. 97: (4.3) added, p. 562, § 7, effective July 1. L. 98: (9) amended, p. 921, § 8, effective July 1. L. 99: (9) amended, p. 621, § 16, effective August 4. L. 2001: (4.3) amended, p. 721, § 3, effective May 31. L. 2002: (4.3) amended, p. 1892, § 52, effective July 1; (6.5) added, p. 23, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2003: (2) amended, p. 1265, § 52, effective July 1. L. 2004: (4.5) amended, p. 387, § 3, effective July 1. L. 2005: (2) amended, p. 498, § 2, effective August 8. L. 2009: (9) amended, (SB 09-282), ch. 288, p. 1397, § 60, effective January 1, 2010. L. 2018: IP and (2) amended, (SB 18-092), ch. 38, p. 401, § 16, effective August 8. L. 2020: (9) amended, HB (20-1402), ch. 216, p. 1045, § 24, effective June 30.
Editor's note: Amendments to subsection (9) by Senate Bill 94-088 and House Bill 941345 were harmonized.
Cross references: For the legislative declaration contained in the 1994 act amending subsections (4.5)(a) and (7), see section 1 of chapter 345, Session Laws of Colorado 1994. For the legislative declaration in SB 18-092, see section 1 of chapter 38, Session Laws of Colorado 2018.
Additional remedies. The remedies provided in this article are in addition to and not in substitution for any other remedies.
Source: L. 81: Entire article added, p. 906, § 1, effective June 8.
Recovery for child support debt. (1) Any payment of public assistance by a county department of human or social services made to or for the benefit of any dependent child or children creates a debt, which is due and owing to the county department of human or social services, recoverable by the county as a debt due to the state by the parent or parents who are responsible for support of the dependent child or children, or by the parent whose rights were terminated pursuant to section 19-5-105.5 and who was ordered to pay child support for the benefit of a dependent child, in an amount to be determined as follows:
Where there has been a court order directed to a parent, the child support debt of thatparent is an amount equal to the amount of public assistance paid to the extent of the full amount of arrearages under the order. However, the county department of human or social services, through its delegate child support enforcement unit, may petition for modification of the order on the same grounds as a party to the action.
Where there has been no court or administrative order for child support, the countydepartment of human or social services, through its delegate child support enforcement unit, may initiate a court or administrative action to establish the amount of child support debt accrued, and the court or delegate child support enforcement unit, after hearing or upon stipulation or upon a default order, shall enter an order for child support debt. The debt must be based on the amount of current child support due, or which would have been due if there were an existing order for child support, under the current child support enforcement guidelines in effect on the date of the stipulation, default order, or hearing to establish the child support debt times the number of months the family received public assistance. The total amount of child support debt must not exceed the total amount paid for public assistance. A child support debt established pursuant to this subsection (1)(b) is in addition to any subsequent child support debt accrued pursuant to subsection (1)(a) of this section.
The county department of human or social services, through its delegate child support enforcement unit, must be subrogated to the right of the dependent child or children or person having legal and physical custody of said child or children or having been allocated decision-making authority with respect to the child or children to pursue any child support action existing under the laws of this state to obtain reimbursement of public assistance expended. If a court enters a judgment for or orders the payment of any amount of child support to be paid by an obligor, the county department of human or social services must be subrogated to the debt created by such judgment or order.
An agreement between any one parent or custodial person or person allocated parental responsibilities and the obligor, either relieving the obligor of any duty of support or responsibility therefor or purporting to settle past, present, or future child support obligations either as settlement or as prepayment, must not act to reduce or terminate any rights of the county department of human or social services to recover from that obligor for any public assistance provided unless the county department of human or social services, through its delegate child support enforcement unit, has consented to the agreement, in writing, and the written consent has been incorporated into and made a part of the agreement.
Any parental rights with respect to custody or decision-making responsibility withrespect to a child or parenting time that are granted by a court of competent jurisdiction or are subject to court review must remain unaffected by the establishment or enforcement of a child support debt or obligation by the county department of human or social services or other person pursuant to the provisions of this article 14; and the establishment or enforcement of any such child support debt or obligation must also remain unaffected by such parental rights with respect to custody or decision-making responsibility with respect to a child or parenting time.
No child support debt under this section shall be created in the case of, or at any timecollected from, a parent who receives assistance under the Colorado works program as described in part 7 of article 2 of title 26, C.R.S., for the period such parent is receiving such assistance, unless by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Creation of a child support debt pursuant to this section must not modify or extinguish any rights that the county department of human or social services has obtained or may obtain under an assignment of child support rights, including the right to recover and retain unreimbursed public assistance.
When a portion of a public assistance grant, paid to or for the benefit of a dependentchild, includes moneys paid to provide the custodial parent or the parent with whom the child resides the majority of the time or caretaker relative with necessities including but not limited to shelter, medical care, clothing, or transportation, then those moneys are deemed to be paid to or for the benefit of the dependent child.
Notwithstanding rule 98 of the Colorado rules of civil procedure, venue for an actionto establish child support debt is proper in any county where public assistance was or is being paid, in any county where the obligor parent resides, or in any county where the child resides.
A copy of the computer printout obtained from the state department of human services of the record of payments of assistance under the Colorado works program as described in part 7 of article 2 of title 26, C.R.S., made on behalf of a child whose custodian has been receiving child support enforcement services pursuant to section 26-13-106, C.R.S., shall be admissible into evidence as proof of such payments in any proceeding to establish child support debt and shall be prima facie evidence of the amount of child support debt owing on behalf of said child.
Source: L. 81: Entire article added, p. 906, § 1, effective June 8. L. 89: (1)(b) amended and (8) added, p. 793, § 18, effective July 1. L. 90: (9) added, p. 891, § 13, effective July 1. L. 91: (8) amended, p. 253, § 9, effective July 1. L. 93: (1) amended, p. 1560, § 9, effective June 6;
(4) amended, p. 581, § 17, effective July 1. L. 94: (9) amended, p. 2646, § 110, effective July 1.
L. 97: (5) and (9) amended, p. 1241, § 38, effective July 1. L. 98: (2), (3), (4), and (7) amended, p. 1401, § 51, effective February 1, 1999. L. 2007: (1)(b) amended, p. 1652, § 8, effective May 31. L. 2013: IP(1) amended, (SB 13-227), ch. 353, p. 2062, § 11, effective May 28. L. 2018: (1) to (4) and (6) amended, (SB 18-092), ch. 38, p. 401, § 17, effective August 8.
Cross references: For the legislative declaration contained in the 1993 act amending subsection (4), see section 1 of chapter 165, Session Laws of Colorado 1993. For the legislative declaration contained in the 1994 act amending subsection (9), see section 1 of chapter 345, Session Laws of Colorado 1994. For the legislative declaration in SB 18-092, see section 1 of chapter 38, Session Laws of Colorado 2018.