County Attorney: Lyon near top for
Kentucky child support collections

Above, Steve Veno, right, deputy commissioner of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Income Support, congratulates Lyon County Attorney Brandon Knoth on his office’s success with child support collections and enforcement. Knoth and Amy Defew were in Frankfort this week to receive the award. - Photo furnished

Hundreds of Lyon County children whose parents have split now receive financial support thanks to an aggressive child support program by County Attorney Brandon Knoth’s team.
In the child support payments category Lyon County ranks third in the state.
Knoth and his team were recognized in Frankfort on Tuesday for their work on behalf of the community’s most vulnerable citizens.
When Knoth was elected three years ago, Lyon County ranked 105th overall of Kentucky’s 120 counties in categories used to rank counties by the state Division of Child Support . As of Sept. 30, Knoth had improved that ranking to 22nd. The categories include not only collection of child support payments but also several other areas.
The division “compiles statistics every month and quarterly releases results of your quarterly performance,” Knoth said. “... They judge you on several areas from paternity establishment, collecting child support, how efficient you are - how much money you collect versus how much it costs your office to collect it. They take all those categories and basically average them and rank us as compared to other counties.”
It has taken three years to climb to near the top “because every other county is trying just as hard as we are, and we have one of the smallest budgets in the state,” Knoth said, adding that the budget for his entire office is about $56,000.
Lyon County has about 600 child support cases of which Knoth estimated 80 percent are fathers.
How did Knoth’s team increase its ranking so dramatically in only three years?
“I think the biggest thing was making it a priority,” he said. “You may get someone paying one month, but you can’t quit there because the next month is right around the corner. So we have been relentless; it’s taken time for people to realize that we are not going away.”
The law is clear - child support is a serious issue - child support that is more than $1,000 in arrears is flagrant nonsupport, a Class D felony, punishable by one to five years in the penitentiary.
Lyon has no one serving time for flagrant non support.
However, if a parent’s child support payments are behind more than $1,000, Knoth will ask the District Judge for a warrant charging the person with flagrant nonsupport. If the parent doesn’t pay what he/she owes, the case works its way into Circuit Court.
“But that’s a last resort,” Knoth said. “We try every way in the world to work with someone, and we can tell if they are working with us.
“If they get to the point that they are jailed for not paying child support, that means we’ve exhausted every other remedy,” he said. “We don’t charge folks (with flagrant non support) who are out trying, it’s the folks who blatantly disregard every opportunity we’ve given them.”
Child support cases in which parents are behind, are reviewed monthly in District Court, which means someone who is behind in his/her child support must come to court and explain to the judge why the support payment hasn’t been made.
“If they miss (a payment) one month, then it’s due the next month,” Knoth said, noting that reviewing cases monthly is more work, but it helps parents not to get too far behind. “Child support is expensive, but it’s expensive to raise a kid.”
He conceded that with the downturn in the economy the last two years, many people have had trouble “raising kids as well as trying to find a decent job where they can make ends meet and meet their child support obligations.”
Even so, the number of cases needing review each month has dropped dramatically.
“When we first started, we were having to review probably 20 to 25 cases on the docket every month,” he said. “Now the number has dwindled down because folks ... don’t like to come to court, and some months we may have only four or five cases that need to be reviewed because everybody else is paying.”
Case reviews have proven highly effective because Knoth said some parents will test the county attorney “to see how far you will let it go.”
“We’ve proven over the last few years that we’re not going away,” he said. “We’re reviewing every month and if they are not paying, they are going to go to court one way or another.”
State law provides a strict formula in figuring child support payments. Both parents’ incomes are factored in when the child support obligation is set.
“We have little or no discretion in setting child support. ... We put in the incomes, insurance that is paid, child care that is paid and the number of children, and whatever it comes out, is what it is,” Knoth said.
In the last three years, Knoth only knows of one person who pleaded guilty to flagrant nonsupport. “When they get indicted or charged with a felony, that usually gets the remaining folks attention,” he said, adding that the one person who was indicted paid his child support obligation because he had a prison sentence hanging over his head. “That is the ultimate deterrent. If someone is not afraid of prison, there’s not a whole lot I can do to them.”
Knoth praised Amy DeFew for her assistance in increasing child support payments here. “I’ve got an excellent case worker (DeFew),” he said. “She has years of experience.”
Being recognized as “the most outstanding performer for the last year statewide by the Division of Child Support is humbling,” Knoth said, noting that he and DeFew are working for the children.
“Ultimately our clients are the kids who have no voice in this,” he said. “So it’s satisfying to see most folks paying.”