Why we started the Child Support Enforcement Project.

I've represented hundreds of custodial parents trying to enforce a child support order the court had already signed. And in courtroom after courtroom, I kept seeing the same backwards arrangement play out.

When a non-custodial parent falls behind on support and the case turns into a violation proceeding, they're often entitled to a free, court-appointed attorney — because if the court finds they willfully failed to pay, jail time is on the table, and the law rightly protects anyone facing incarceration with the right to counsel. I understand why that protection exists.

But the custodial parent — the one who's owed the money, who's already covered the rent and the groceries and the school supplies that support was supposed to help pay for — get no such thing. They have to hire their own lawyer, represent themselves, or simply go without representation. They take unpaid time off work to show up to court, learn courtroom procedure on the fly, across the room from someone who has a trained advocate standing next to them.

The parent who owes the money gets a lawyer for free. The parent who's owed the money has to pay for one, or go without. Something has to change — because every dollar and every hour lost in that imbalance is a dollar and an hour taken away from the children the support was for in the first place.