Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

By letter from Nebraska’s HHSS’ Administrator of the Office of Economic and
Family Support, county and authorized attorneys are asked to file Proofs of Claim with
bankruptcy courts for all cases where you are notified that an obligated parent has filed
for bankruptcy protection, regardless under which Chapter (7, 12 or 13) the filing took
place. This recommendation recognizes that child support debt is not dischargeable
under federal bankruptcy law, and that even if a Proof of Claim is not filed child support
is absolutely protected from discharge. However by filing a proof of claim you are
serving notice on the court and the trustee of the exact amount of the child support (and
spousal support, where applicable) debt, and this should increase the likelihood that
enough assets will be set aside in a Chapter 13 case to allow for the repayment of the
support obligation in a timely manner. An exception would be if the “Notice of Chapter
__ Bankruptcy Case” instructs you not to file a proof of claim.
The federal judiciary has posted a primmer on “Bankruptcy Basics” at
http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts/bankruptcybasics.html
The link for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nebraska is:
http://www.neb.uscourts.gov/. Court may access sample completed forms, as well as
complete Proof of Claim and other forms online via the website, under the “Resources”
tab. A helpful link to the U.S. Trustee Program may be found here.
Nebraska’s HHSS office has listed Sam Kaplan as a contact for those with
questions, or needing information. His phone number is 402-471-9263.
Erica J. v. Dewitt, 265 Neb. 728, 659 N.W.2d 315 (2003)
Facts: In modification action the child support referee gave the noncustodial parent a dollar for
dollar deduction against his newly recalculated child support amount on account of a bankruptcy
repayment plan he was paying on. The referee compared the bankruptcy repayment plan to a
student loan that the noncustodial parent could not escape paying, and which credit can be
given for according to case law. The district court affirmed the referee and the State appealed.
Held: this was error.
The guidelines allow deductions for taxes, Social Security, health insurance,
mandatory retirement contributions, and child support for other children. Payments
to a bankruptcy plan are not specifically provided for in the guidelines as a deduction
or credit. See paragraph C(5).
The Court of Appeals has held that a payment to a bankruptcy plan in and of itself is
not sufficient to rebut the presumption that the guidelines should be applied or to
require a deviation from the guidelines to avoid an unjust result. See Lebrato v.
Lebrato, 3 Neb. App. 505, 529 N.W.2d 90 (1995).
From our de novo review of the referee’s report, we conclude that the referee erred
in allowing a $100 credit for the payments to Dewitt’s bankruptcy plan. The referee
was not justified in crediting $100 of the bankruptcy plan payment directly against
the child support
Child Care
Dworak v. Fugit, 1 Neb. App. 332, 495 N.W.2d 47 (1992).
child-care costs may be awarded as an incident to child support in a paternity action.
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