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Legal Information: Arkansas

Statutes: Arkansas

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Updated: 
January 3, 2024

9-14-105. Support petitions

 

(a) The circuit courts in the several counties in this state shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all civil cases and matters relating to the support of a minor child or support owed to a person eighteen (18) or older that accrued during that person’s minority.

(b) The following may file a petition to require the parent or parents of a minor child to provide support for the minor child:

(1) Any parent having physical custody of a minor child;

(2) Any other person or agency to whom physical custody of a minor child has been given or relinquished;

(3) A minor child by and through his or her guardian or fictive kin; or

(4) The Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration when a person to whom physical custody has been relinquished or awarded, parent, or putative father:

(A) Is receiving assistance under the Transitional Employment Assistance Program, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or the Foster Care Program of Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 670 et seq.;

(B) Is receiving child support services under 45 C.F.R. § 302.33, as it existed on January 1, 2023; or

(C) Has contracted with the Department of Finance and Administration for child support services.

(c)(1) Any person eighteen (18) years of age or above to whom support was owed during his or her minority may file a petition for a judgment against the nonsupporting parent or parents.

(2) Upon hearing, a judgment may be entered upon proof by a preponderance of the evidence for the amount of support owed and unpaid for the last three (3) years prior to the petitioner reaching the age of majority.

(d) As used in this subchapter:

(1) “Minor child” means a child less than eighteen (18) years of age; and

(2) “Payor parent” means a parent with an obligation to pay support.

(e) Any action filed pursuant to this subchapter may be brought at any time up to and including five (5) years from the date the child reaches eighteen (18) years of age.

(f) This section shall apply to all actions pending as of March 29, 1991, and filed thereafter and shall retroactively apply to all child support orders now existing.