Section 40-4B-6 - Hearings; powers of child support hearing officers. - New Mexico Statutes

40-4B-6. Hearings; powers of child support hearing officers.

A.     Child support hearing officers have the adjudicatory powers possessed by district courts under the Support Enforcement Act [40-4A-1 NMSA 1978], the Revised Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act [Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, 40-6A-1 NMSA 1978] and any other law allowing the enforcement and establishment of support obligations by the state Title IV D agency.   

B.     Hearings shall be held in the judicial district in which the claim arose or in the judicial district where one of the parties resides.   

C.     The child support hearing officer shall have the power to preserve and enforce order during hearings; administer oaths; issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses, the production of books, papers, documents and other evidence or the taking of depositions before a designated individual competent to administer oaths; examine witnesses; and do all things conformable to law which may be necessary to enable him to discharge the duties of his office effectively.   

D.     Any person committing any of the following acts in a proceeding before a child support hearing officer may be held accountable for his conduct in accordance with the provisions of Subsection E of this section:   

(1)     disobedience of or resistance to any lawful order or process;   

(2)     misbehavior during a hearing or so near the place of the hearing as to obstruct it;   

(3)     failure to produce any pertinent book, paper or document after having been ordered to do so;   

(4)     refusal to appear after having been subpoenaed;   

(5)     refusal to take the oath or affirmation as a witness; or   

(6)     refusal to be examined according to law.   

E.     The child support hearing officer may certify to the district court the fact that an act specified in Paragraphs (1) through (6) of Subsection C [D] of this section was committed in that court.  The court shall hold a hearing and if the evidence so warrants may punish the offending person in the same manner and to the same extent as for contempt committed before the court, or the court may commit the person upon the same conditions as if the doing of the forbidden act had occurred with reference to the process of or in the presence of the court.