42-358.02 Delinquent child support payments, spousal support payments, and medical support payments; interest; rate; report; Title IV-D Division; duties. - Nebraska Statutes

42-358.02. Delinquent childsupport payments, spousal supportpayments, and medical support payments; interest; rate; report;Title IV-D Division; duties.(1) All delinquentchild support payments, spousalsupport payments, and medical support payments shall draw interestat the rate specified in section 45-103 in effect on the date of the mostrecent order or decree. Such interest shall be computed as simple interest.(2) All child support payments, spousal support payments, and medical support payments shallbecome delinquent the day after they are due and owing, except that no obligorwhose supportpayments are automatically withheld from his or her paycheck shall be regardedor reported as being delinquent or in arrears if (a) any delinquency or arrearageis solely caused by a disparity between the schedule of the obligor's regularpay dates and the scheduled date the support payment is due, (b) the totalamount of support payments to be withheld fromthe paychecks of the obligor and the amount ordered by the support order arethe same on an annual basis, and (c) the automatic deductions for support payments are continuous and occurring. Interestshall not accrue until thirty days after such payments are delinquent.(3) The court shall order the determination of the amountof interest due, and such interest shall be payable in the same manner asthe support payments upon which the interest accrues subject to subsection(2) of this section or unless it is waived by agreement of the parties. TheTitle IV-D Division of the Department of Health and Human Services shall computeinterest and identify delinquencies pursuant to this section on the paymentsreceived by the State Disbursement Unit pursuant to section 42-369. The TitleIV-D Division shall provide the case information in electronic format, andupon request in print format, to the judge presiding over domestic relationscases and to the county attorney or authorized attorney.(4) Support order payments shall be credited in the followingmanner:(a) First, to the payments due for the current month in thefollowing order: Child support payments, then spousal support payments, andlastly medical support payments;(b) Second, toward any payment arrearage owing, in the followingorder: Child support payment arrearage, then spousal support payment arrearage,and lastly medical support payment arrearage; and(c) Third, toward the interest on any payment arrearage, inthe following order: Child support payment arrearage interest, then spousalsupport payment arrearage interest, and lastly medical support payment arrearageinterest.(5) Interest which may have accrued prior to September 6,1991, shall not be affected or altered by changes to this section which takeeffect on such date. All delinquent support order payments and all decreesentered prior to such date shall draw interest at the effective rate as prescribedby this section commencing as of such date. SourceLaws 1975, LB 212, § 4; Laws 1981, LB 167, § 31; Laws 1983, LB 371, § 2; Laws 1984, LB 845, § 26; Laws 1985, Second Spec. Sess., LB 7, § 11; Laws 1987, LB 569, § 1; Laws 1991, LB 457, § 2; Laws 1997, LB 18, § 1; Laws 2000, LB 972, § 11; Laws 2005, LB 396, § 2; Laws 2007, LB296, § 58; Laws 2009, LB288, § 4.AnnotationsThe district court erred, as a matter of law, in failing to account for the effective date of the amended statute as triggering a change in the applicable interest rate. Prior to September 6, 1991, interest on delinquent child support payments accrues at a rate determined by section 45-104.01, and as of September 6, 1991, interest on delinquent child support payments accrues at a rate determined by section 45-103. Welch v. Welch, 246 Neb. 435, 519 N.W.2d 262 (1994).