North Dakota Quandary over Child Support and Attorney License

05/29/12

The broad powers of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the North Dakota Department of Human Services, though commendable, are raising questions about irresponsible implementation. A lawyer from Devils Lake, Rudolph Tollefson, has had his license to practice law suspended twice this year and last year because of late payments in child support. Tollefson was investigated by a disciplinary panel of the North Dakota Supreme Court for a number of violations including that he had practiced law while his license was suspended for not paying child support within time. Lawyers in North Dakota are raising questions over the issue, and the panel has asked the state Supreme Court to clarify whether the child support agency had the authority to strip Tollefson of his license to practice law granted by the bar.


While, according to Jim Fleming, the director of the child support enforcement agency of North Dakota, Tollefson is the only lawyer to have his license suspended over late child support payments, the issue is broader. According to rules and conventions of professional conduct already in place, the Supreme Court should have been the only authority to discipline attorneys while all others had the authority to conduct investigations and submit recommendations to the Supreme Court. However, at least in this instance, that authority of the Supreme Court seems to be superseded by the Child Support Enforcement. That's questionable when it comes to a professional license as that of a practicing attorney.

William Neumann, the director of the state Bar Association of North Dakota is concerned that the rule that allows the Child Support Agency to discipline attorneys and take away their licenses to practice because of being late in child support is questionable.

The question is whether the rule is at all rational, besides infringing on the powers of other statutory bodies including the Supreme Court. If a person is late in child support payment, that can be either due to personal negligence or genuine economic problems. However, taking away the occupational license of the provider only ensures further economic problems leading to lessening the ability to provide child support. Seen that way, the provision is self-defeating.

Fleming, however, held that “For some … debtors, it's the leverage that works, to get them to come in and negotiate a payment plan with us …We want them to start paying and start paying regularly.”

By taking away their ability to pay?

The child support agency, as explained by Neumann, holds that the attorney disciplinary process is cumbersome, and not streamlined enough to ensure child support, which needs to be immediate for the survival of the dependants.

According to estimates, there are more than 33,000 cases before North Dakota's child support agency and more than $93 million in payments up to September 30, 2011. Almost seventy five percent of the amount was collected, but since 2003, there has also been at least 14 cases where the agency has suspended occupational licenses.