2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 14 - DOMESTIC MATTERS (§§ 14-1-101 — 14-15-119) › DESERTION AND NONSUPPORT (§§ 14-5-101 — 14-7-105) › Article 5 - UNIFORM INTERSTATE FAMILY SUPPORT ACT (§§ 14-5-101 — 14-5-1007) › Part 5 - ENFORCEMENT OF ORDER OF ANOTHER STATE WITHOUT REGISTRATION (§§ 14-5-501 — 14-5-507) › Section 14-5-507 - Administrative enforcement of orders

(a)
A party or support enforcement agency seeking to enforce a support order or an income-withholding order, or both, issued in another state or a foreign support order may send the documents required for registering the order to a support enforcement agency of this state.
(b)
Upon receipt of the documents, the support enforcement agency, without initially seeking to register the order, shall consider and, if appropriate, use any administrative procedure authorized by the law of this state to enforce a support order or an income-withholding order, or both. If the obligor does not contest administrative enforcement, the order need not be registered. If the obligor contests the validity or administrative enforcement of the order, the support enforcement agency shall register the order pursuant to this article.
Amended by 2015 Ch. 173, §30, eff. 7/1/2015.
L. 97: Entire part amended with relocations, p. 540, § 11, effective July 1. L. 2003: (a) amended, p. 1257, § 31, effective 7/1/2004. L. 2015: (a) amended, (HB 15-1198), ch. 173, p. 554, § 30, effective July 1.
This section was formerly numbered as §
14-5-502
.
COMMENT
Sections 501 through 506 are posited on the belief that U.S. employers ought not be burdened with enforcement of foreign income-withholding orders received directly from overseas. This view is inapplicable if a support enforcement agency is involved. The procedural safeguards built into the Title IV-D system of processing requests between Central Authorities provide reasonable assurance that the income withholding order to be enforced is genuine.
This section authorizes summary enforcement of an interstate or foreign child-support order through the administrative means available for intrastate orders if the agency deems it "appropriate" to do so. Under subsection (a), an interested party in another state or foreign country, which necessarily includes a private attorney or a support enforcement agency, may forward a support order or income-withholding order to a support enforcement agency of the responding state. The term "responding state" in this context does not necessarily contemplate resort to a tribunal as an initial step.
Subsection (b) directs the support enforcement agency in the responding state to consider and, if appropriate, to use that state's regular administrative procedures to process an out-of-state order. Thus, a local employer accustomed to dealing with the local agency need not change its procedure to comply with an out-of-state order. Similarly, the administrative agency is authorized to apply its ordinary rules equally to both intrastate and interstate orders. For example, if the administrative hearing procedure must be exhausted for an intrastate order before a contesting party may seek relief in a tribunal, the same rule applies to an interstate order received for administrative enforcement. This subsection also makes it clear that filing liens or submitting claims in legal actions do not require the initial registration of the order.