(1) A collector may not engage in any fraudulent, unfair, deceptive, or misleading act or practice in soliciting an obligee to enter into a contract for the provision of child support enforcement services or in offering or performing a service pursuant to such a contract, including but not limited to the following:
Imposing a fee or charge, including costs, for any payment collected through theefforts of or as a result of actions taken by a federal, state, or county agency, including but not limited to support collected from federal or state income tax refunds, unemployment benefits, or social security benefits. If the collector discovers, or is notified by the obligee or the federal, state, or county agency, that a payment was collected through the efforts of a federal, state, or county agency, the collector shall not assess fees on the payment. Any fees improperly retained shall be refunded to the obligee within seven business days.
Designating a current child support payment as arrears, interest, or other amountowed;
Intercepting or redirecting from the obligor, the obligor's employer, or on the behalfof the obligor to the collector any child support paid to the obligee if payment is ordered to be made through a central payment registry;
Intercepting, redirecting, or collecting any amounts owed to a government agencyunder an assignment of rights resulting from the payment of public assistance to the obligee or owed to a state agency;
When a child support order directs that payment be made through a central paymentregistry, suggesting or instructing that the obligor or the obligor's employer send the payment to the collector;
Making a misleading representation or omitting a material disclosure that, as a result,is misleading with respect to the identity of any entity that has performed or may perform a child support enforcement service for any obligee;
Requiring an obligee to sign a private child support enforcement contract that doesnot conform to the provisions of section 5-17-106;
Sending an income-withholding order to an entity, unless the collector is authorizedby state law to send the income-withholding order;
Accepting a settlement offer made by an obligor before:
The collector has reviewed all settlement offers with the obligee; and
The obligee has expressly authorized the collector to accept the settlement offer;
Requesting or requiring an obligee to waive the right of the obligee to accept a settlement offer; or
Collecting or attempting to collect child support after the obligor notifies the collector pursuant to the procedure provided in section 5-17-108 (1)(a)(III) and (1)(a)(IV) that the obligor disputes the existence or amount of the child support obligation and the collector has not obtained written verification of the existence or amount of the obligation or a copy of the judgment against the obligor and mailed the obligor a copy of the verification of judgment.
Source: L. 2017: Entire article added with relocations, (HB 17-1238), ch. 260, p. 1107, § 2, effective August 9.
Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-14.1-104 as it existed prior to 2017.