New law to make alimony dodging more difficult

Martina Macková
5. 5. 2008 18:00
Alimony payments to be a priority over other debts

Prague - Czech lawmakers are most likely going to introduce stricter measures to discipline those who refuse to pay alimony for their children. Stricter, but less strict than planned.

The coalition lawmakers planned to abolish professional confidentiality but failed to have this measure enforced in the bill.

The amendment to the Civil Procedure Act will be discussed first by Lower Chamber members this Friday, and later by the Senate.

Mothers and children: priority creditors

Paying alimony will have a priority over other types of debts.

"In the case of selling an enterprise because of debt, the mother will be the first one who will get her alimony paid out. Other creditors will be paid only afterwards," informed David Kafka, a Civic Democratic Party (ODS) member of the Lower Chamber and one of the law's authors.

This way alimony payments will have the right to preced taxes, health and social security insurance and other types of fees.

For those who do not pay alimony on a long-term basis, the obligatory amount of payment will be based on the monthly living minimum.

State to advise, not to be paid

The new law will exempt parents from an obligation to pay advance fees on an executory process when claiming alimony payments from their former spouse.

On top of that, parents will be helped and advised by courts and social workers without having to pay any fees.

However, lawmakers did not manage to enforce an obligation for banks, insurance companies, state and municipal agencies to provide courts with all information about property and contacts of debtors.

The lawmakers also tried to abolish professional secrecy of lawyers who are currently obliged to provide courts with all the data about their clients only if there is money laundering involved.

Failure of the "Slovak" model

Social Democratic (ČSSD) lawmaker Anna Čurdová has already tried twice to improve the situation of Czech mothers who have not been able to get alimony payments from their former partners for years.

Čurdová proposed alimony payments made to parents who have custody of their children to be paid by the state, which would eventually reclaim the payments from the debtors. This system is applied in Slovakia but has not been very successful.

"In Slovakia, they have been able to recover only ten percent more than before the system was introduced," explained Hovorka.

Klaus's veto

Two years ago, the Lower Chamber approved the law on alimony payments in spite of the fact that the Senate voted it down.

However, President Václav Klaus vetoed the law because it allegedly "did not address the problem". Lawmakers did not manage to outvote his veto in time before the parliamentary elections.

Last year in October, the law failed to be approved in the Lower Chamber, short of one vote. The law was refused by the right-wing lawmakers.

In 2006, the state paid  CZK 95 billion (4 billion euros) for unprovided children. It managed to recover debts in about ten percent of the cases. 

 

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