2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 25 - Special Child Support Act (§§ 501 — 530) › § 517 - Expedited legal procedure—Hearing

(1) The examiner shall hold the hearing on support and within a term of twenty (20) days shall submit a report to the court with his/her recommendations containing findings of fact and conclusions of law.
The Rules of Evidence, App. IV of Title 32, shall apply to the proceedings before the examiner.
(2) In cases before the examiner in which complex issues arise, or when controversies on custody, or patria potestas, or maternal-paternal filiation relationships are involved or arise, except in procedures which require the establishing of the paternity of the obligee and the obligor-defendant does not acknowledge it, the examiner shall recommend that a provisional support order be issued pursuant to § 516 of this title and shall refer the case for regular judicial procedures.
(3)
(a) When voluntary acknowledgement of paternity occurs, the examiner shall recommend to the court that a judgment be rendered to such ends, establishing the paternity of the obligee as well as the amount of child support payments to, be fixed.
(b) When the paternity is in controversy, the examiner shall order genetic tests pursuant to § 512(2)(c) of this title, and on the basis of the results thereof duly admitted as evidence, shall submit a recommendation to the court that an order be issued.
The cases in which the determination of paternity of the minor is in dispute are exempt from the provisions on expedited procedure.
(4)
(a) The fact that the brief or petition regarding support requests a modification of a previously issued order by a competent court shall not prevent the examiner from acting in accordance with the provisions of § 516 of this title and of making recommendations to the court to keep the same, or establish a provisional support order that is different from the one whose modification is being requested.
(b) In cases that, in the opinion of the Court of First Instance Judge, one of the parties in the suit has frivolously presented a controversy regarding custody, patria potestas or maternal-paternal filiation relationships with the subsequent result of preventing the intervention of the examiner and delaying the process of final adjudication of support, the court shall impose financial sanctions on that party and/or his/her attorney, including payment of attorney’s fees in favor of the other party.
(5) The examiner’s report shall include findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommendations regarding support which shall be referred to the Court of First Instance.
The Court of First Instance Judge may concur with the examiner’s determinations, conclusions and recommendations, or he can make his/her own findings of fact or conclusions of law, with or without a prior hearing, and issue the corresponding order, resolution or sentence, which shall be notified to the obligor and the obligee or to the Secretary of the Family, as the case may be. Every order, resolution of judgment to fix or modify support or to ensure the effectiveness of the payment of support, established through the expedited procedure provided in this chapter, shall have, for all legal effects, the same force and effect as an order, resolution or judgment established through the regular judicial procedure.
(6) All child support orders issued by the court pursuant to a recommendation of the examiner or of its own accord shall contain a disposition requiring all parties in the action to inform the Administration of any change in residential address and/or employment address, or changes in the available health insurance coverage, within 10 days from said change. The court shall remit the order along with the form that must be completed to the Administration pursuant to the provisions set forth in § 522 of this title within 30 days of the date of issue of the order for same to be filed in the State Register of Child Support Cases.
It is also provided that Rule 62.2 of the Rules of Civil Procedure of 1979 shall not apply to the Administration which, being an interested party shall have access to and may copy the court files cases in which child support has been established.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, art. V, § 18; Apr. 24, 1987, No. 16, § 3; Dec. 18, 1997, No. 169, § 14; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 21.