When parents divorce in Minnesota, a court issues an order to ensure that both parents provide financially to accommodate the child. This is known as a child support order. It is very important that parents achieve a child support order that is reasonable and appropriate; and, if circumstances change and the child support arrangement becomes unmanageable, it is best to follow legal channels in order to receive a modified child support order.

If a parent fails to make payments, the other parent can work with the county or a family law attorney to enforce the child support order. However, Minnesota counties' ability to do this was recently called into question when the state announced it has ordered Hennepin County to reopen hundreds of child support enforcement cases that it closed inappropriately, according to a Minneapolis Star Tribune report.

The state's inquiry came after a media report revealed that a Hennepin County woman's child support case was closed while her child's father owed about $38,000. After that report, the state has found that Hennepin County's child support enforcement records show that the county closed more than 533 cases without appropriate justification; similar issues were found in Ramsey County and other jurisdictions.

The closed cases in Hennepin County seem to stem from a policy of considering cases uncollectible and closing them once a payment has not been received over a length of five years.

The county has defended itself by explaining that the recession has left many parents without the means to pay child support, and that many parents just quit making payments instead of seeking to modify their child support orders.

It is very important -- even in cases where both parents agree to a child support change -- that parents request a legal modification when decreasing a child support order. This is in part because failing to pay child support can be considered a criminal offense, and it is in your best interest to have legal documentation of the approval of a decrease in payments.

Source: Star Tribune, "Hennepin County's closed cases on child support to be re-examined," Jeremy Olson, Feb. 13, 2012