Enforcing and Collecting Child Support
If a child support order is in place that requires your child’s other parent to make child support payments to you and the parent is not making those payments, you will need to take steps to enforce the child support order. Iowa law gives several ways to enforce a child support order, such as income withholding, garnishment, liens, license suspension, and contempt of court. See Iowa Code sections 598.23, 598.23A, and 600B.37.
To explore your options for enforcing the child support order, consider reaching out to the Iowa Child Support Services. Our page "Child Support Overview" provides more information on the help available through Iowa Child Support Services.
You may also want to contact a lawyer. If the court finds that the person hasn’t done what the court ordered (is in "default") or willfully disobeyed the court’s order (is in "contempt"), the court has the option of ordering a person to pay for the cost of the court case, including reasonable attorney fees. Iowa Code sections 598.24 and 600B.37A.
Iowa Legal Aid offers more information on child support in the Child Support section of their website.