Child Support Arrears · Statewide, Every Texas County

Back Child Support Is Already a Judgment. We Go Get It.

You Pay $999. The Other Parent Pays the Rest.

How the fee works

In Texas every missed child support payment becomes a final judgment the day it’s missed, with 6% interest. The law lets us reach bank accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, insurance payouts and paychecks that ordinary creditors can’t touch. Your retainer is $999. Our remaining fees are awarded against the parent who didn’t pay and collected from them the same way the support is: by lien, levy and wage writ. No percentage of your child’s money.

You pay a $999 retainer before filing, in any Texas county. That is your out-of-pocket for our fee.
The other parent pays the balance. When the court finds support wasn’t paid, Texas Family Code §157.167 says it shall order them to pay your reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. No contempt finding required. Since September 2025 that fee judgment is entered separately from the arrears and can be collected by its own wage writ (§158.0051), by the lien, and by levy, exactly like child support.
No contingency, no percentage. The arrears and interest are your child’s. We don’t take a cut.
Court costs (filing, citation, subpoenas, recording) are advanced by you and requested back from the other parent in the same order.
Add-ons: QDRO on a private pension or 401(k), $600. Military or federal retirement garnishment order, $600. A contempt hearing with jail time requested is quoted separately. These are also requested against the other parent.

Statewide, in every Texas county. Texas Family Code §§157.167, 157.261–.330, 158.301–.319, 157.501–.506. Board Certified in Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

What the retainer puts in motion

Motion to confirm arrears and render one cumulative judgment, with interest
Child support lien notices on banks, brokerage accounts, retirement plans and IRAs
Notice of levy: the bank pays us directly within 15 to 21 days
Judicial writ of withholding on wages, bonuses and severance, up to 50%
Post-judgment discovery and subpoenas to find the accounts
Fee and cost award against the other parent, entered as a separate judgment

Four tools, run at the same time

01 / 04

Confirm the number

We file a motion to confirm arrears. The court must add up every missed payment plus 6% simple interest and render one cumulative money judgment; it cannot reduce the amount. This judgment is what unlocks the bank levy, and it earns 6% until paid. You have ten years after the child turns 18, or after support ends, to do this.

02 / 04

File the child support lien

No court order is needed; the lien exists by law and we can serve notice the day we’re hired. It attaches to bank and brokerage accounts, 401(k)s, pensions and IRAs, life insurance and annuity payouts, personal injury and workers’ compensation settlements, oil and gas proceeds, vehicles, and all non-homestead real estate, including property bought later. The Property Code exemptions that shield retirement accounts from other creditors do not apply to a child support lien (Tex. Prop. Code §42.005).

03 / 04

Levy the bank

Once the arrears are confirmed, we deliver a notice of levy. The bank must freeze the account to the amount owed and pay us, not the other parent, between the 15th and 21st day. No garnishment lawsuit, no bond. A bank that lets the money out after notice is liable to you for what it released, plus our fees. The other parent has ten days to pay or file suit to contest.

04 / 04

Writ of judicial withholding

A lien cannot touch a paycheck, so we file a verified notice of application for a judicial writ of withholding the moment one month’s support is past due. The other parent gets ten days to contest, and the only grounds are wrong person or wrong amount. Then the clerk issues the writ straight to the employer: up to 50% of disposable earnings, covering current support and arrears, plus severance and bonuses. A second, subordinate writ collects the attorney’s fees the court awarded against them.

If the money is in a pension, we get an order for the pension

The court that signed the support order keeps jurisdiction to sign a child support QDRO against any pension, 401(k) or employee benefit, private or public, even one already divided in the divorce or covered by a prenup, until every dollar of arrears and interest is paid (§157.501). The order can include interest and the fee award. Texas public plans (TRS, ERS, TCDRS, TMRS, Houston municipal, police and fire) each require their own form; we draft to the plan.

Reachable

Military retired pay through DFAS, and federal civil service pensions and TSP distributions through OPM, under 42 U.S.C. §659
Social Security retirement and disability (Title II): the anti-garnishment rule is waived for child support
VA compensation, only to the extent it replaces waived military retired pay; otherwise it is protected and we file for VA apportionment instead

Not reachable

The homestead
529 college plans
SSI
A new spouse’s separate property and sole-management community property

Old arrears are live arrears

A cumulative money judgment can be sought until ten years after the child turns 18 or support ends. Contempt has a two-year window. Child support judgments never go dormant, and they survive bankruptcy.

What the first 45 days look like

Day 1
Retained. Lien notices served on every bank and plan we know of; copy to the other parent within 21 days. Writ of withholding application filed.
Days 1–14
Motion to confirm arrears filed. Rule 621a discovery and bank subpoenas go out to find what we don’t know about.
Day 11
No contest to the writ? The clerk issues it to the employer within four working days. Wages start coming in.
Hearing
Arrears confirmed with interest. Separate judgment for attorney’s fees and costs entered against the other parent. In the court of continuing jurisdiction, wherever in Texas that is, or the IV-D court if the OAG has the case.
Plus 15–21 days
Notice of levy delivered. Bank pays. QDRO or DFAS order follows if the money is in retirement.

Frequently asked questions

Is $999 all I pay?

$999 is your retainer and your out-of-pocket for our fee. The balance of our fee is awarded by the court against the other parent under §157.167 and collected from them. Court costs are advanced by you and requested back in the same order.

What if the court doesn’t award fees?

The statute says the court shall award them once it finds support went unpaid. It can be waived only for good cause stated on the record, and if the other parent owes $20,000 or more and is in contempt, it cannot be waived unless they are involuntarily unemployed or disabled. Your fee agreement spells out what happens in that rare case.

Do I need a court order before you can freeze the account?

Not for the lien; it exists by law and we serve it immediately. The levy, where the bank actually pays us, requires the arrears to be confirmed by a judge first. We file for that on day one.

The Attorney General already has my case. Why hire you?

The OAG runs the same tools, at OAG speed. We don’t replace them; we run a private lien, levy and writ alongside, and the OAG’s bank data match still feeds their side. If your case is in the IV-D court, that’s where we go.

My order is from another Texas county. Can you still do this?

Yes. Enforcement goes in the court that signed the order, and we file in all 254 counties. Lien notices, levy and the wage writ are paper and e-filing; most of this work never requires a courtroom. If a hearing does require travel, we tell you before we file, and the cost is requested against the other parent with the rest.

Can you take money from their new spouse?

No. Her separate property and her own earnings are off limits. A joint account is reachable to the extent of the other parent’s share, and the spouse can ask the court to sort out whose money is whose.

What about their 401(k) or IRA?

Reachable. The exemption that protects retirement accounts from credit card and business creditors specifically does not apply to child support liens. IRAs are levied directly; employer plans take a child support QDRO.

They’re self-employed or paid in cash.

Then it’s liens, levy and discovery rather than the wage writ: bank records, the business’s receivables, vehicles, insurance, and any lawsuit they have pending. Contempt is the last tool, not the first.

Bring the order and your payment record. Thirty minutes tells us where the money is.

$100 phone consultation, required before any arrears package. Credited to the $999 retainer if you hire us within 30 days.

Book the phone consult

Law Offices of Michael G. Busby Jr., P.C. · 715 E. Whitney St., Houston 77022 · 6100 Corporate Dr., Ste 190, Houston 77036 · 281-DIVORCE · Serving all of Texas from Houston · Board Certified, Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization · Attorney advertising.