2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 25 - Special Child Support Act (§§ 501 — 530) › § 528a - Additional methods to assure effective payment of support

(1) It shall be a condition for obtaining or keeping a license, permit, endorsement, or an occupational, professional, recreational, sports privilege, or of any other type, such as a driver’s license, occupational or professional license, target shooting license, business license, weapons license, or to be hired and employed by the Government of Puerto Rico, its agencies, public instrumentalities, and municipalities or in the federal government, a person obliged to pay child support shall be up to date in his/her payments or that he/she executes and complies with a payment plan to such effect, and that same has not been in noncompliance with the orders, summonses, requirements, resolutions or judgments of a court or the Administrator by virtue of this chapter. The government, municipal and federal agencies in charge of granting endorsements, permits or licenses, or empowered to contract in any manner with natural persons, shall have thirty (30) days from the date of approval of this act to incorporate this provision into the applicable regulations under their jurisdiction and to establish as a sanction for noncompliance with same the denial or suspension of any occupational, professional, or any other type of license, permit, endorsement or privilege.
(2) In addition to the measures authorized in this chapter, and in those cases in which the Administration has taken reasonable action to collect the child support, as established in the regulation of the Administration, to compel the obligor to comply with his/her obligation to pay child support, the Administrator shall notify the obligor of its intention to request from the pertinent administrative or municipal agency the suspension of any permit, license, endorsement, or privilege, such as the motor vehicle driver’s license, occupational, professional or other type of permit, license, target shooting license, business license, weapons license, or to be hired and employed by the Government of Puerto Rico, its agencies, public instrumentalities, municipalities or in the federal government, due to failure to comply with the obligation to pay child support. In addition, the Administrator shall request the cancellation of similar rights from the federal government and its instrumentalities and if the amount of the child support debt is greater than $5,000.00, or the amount that the federal government may establish in the future, the cancellation of the indebted obligor’s passport by the federal Department of State, pursuant to the procedures and in the manner set forth by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources of the United States. The obligor shall be instructed of his/her right to object the suspension, but the only admissible defenses shall be those of errors of fact: that there is no debt, or that the amount corresponding to the debt or the support payment is mistaken, or that the person is not the obligor.
The obligor shall have ten (10) days to object the intention to order the suspension. If the indebted obligor satisfies the total amount of the debt or executes and satisfies a payment plan within such term, the Administrator shall be hindered from requesting to the regulating organism the suspension of the licenses, permits or privileges previously mentioned in this section, or initiating the cancellation of passport privileges.
If the indebted obligor does not settle the support debt, or does not execute and satisfy a payment plan, the Administrator shall make determinations of fact and conclusions of law and shall notify to the obligor and the corresponding regulating agency that it shall proceed with the suspension of the license within a term of not more than thirty (30) days, or shall refer the case to the federal government for the cancellation of the passport.
(3) The Administrator shall notify to the obligor its intention of ordering the publication of photographs and information about the obligor, including the accrued support debt, physical traits, and any other information that allows identification in newspapers of general circulation in Puerto Rico, as well as in other public broadcasting media, instructing him/her of his/her right to object; but the only admissible defenses for the Administrator to consider the objection are errors of fact: that there is no debt, or that the amount corresponding to the debt or the support payment are mistaken, or that the person is not the obligor.
The obligor shall have ten (10) days to object the intention of ordering the publication. If the indebted obligor settles the debt or executes and satisfies a payment plan, the Administrator shall be hindered from ordering the publication.
The aforementioned measures shall be available when all the mechanisms to enforce the payment of the child support contemplated in §§ 523–528 of this title are exhausted.
(4) If the obligor attempts to evade the jurisdiction of the Administrator, refusing notices, refusing to comply with the requirement of evidence or documents, or does not appear at the hearings or meetings to which same is summoned, or evades the jurisdiction by moving to another state, the Administrator shall request that the court impose contempt charges and issue an order of arrest in absence. If the obligor evades the jurisdiction moving to another state with the express or tacit intention of not complying with his/her duty to pay child support, the Administrator, after the collections procedures, shall refer the case to the federal district attorney and the corresponding federal agencies to initiate a criminal action against the indebted obligor.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, added as art. VII, § 30 on Aug. 17, 1994, No. 86, § 37; Dec. 18, 1997, No. 169, § 24; May 10, 2000, No. 56, § 1; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 33.