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Assignment of Rights

Quick Facts

Public agency can enforce assigned rights judgments as real party in interest.
If not assigned rights to support, public authority can still intervene to protect its interests.

The public agency that is responsible for child support enforcement must be joined as a party in each case in where rights are assigned from the support recipient to the public authority. The court administrator will enter and docket a judgment that is secured by operation of law in the name of the public agency to the extent that the obligation has been assigned.

When arrearages are reduced to judgment in appropriate cases, the court will grant judgment in favor of, and in the name of, the public agency to the extent that the arrearages are assigned. After filing notice of an assignment with the court administrator, who enters the notice in the docket, the public agency is able to enforce a judgment entered before the assignment of rights as if the judgment were granted to it, and in its name, to the extent that the arrearages in that judgment are assigned.

The public authority is a real party in interest in any IV-D case where there has been an assignment of support. In all other IV-D cases, the public authority has a pecuniary interest, as well as an interest in the welfare of the children involved in those cases. The public authority may intervene as a matter of right in those cases to ensure that child support orders are obtained and enforced that provide for an appropriate and accurate level of child, medical, and child care support.