Court Opinion

ID: 9686458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:48:52.746614+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:18.948369
License: Public Domain

CRIPPEN, Judge,
concurring specially.
We accede to appellant’s argument that 1984 legislation mandates withholding orders in juvenile court costs-of-care cases. Minn.Stat. § 260.251, subd. 1(d) (1986); see 1984 Minn. Laws ch. 606, § 2. This is notwithstanding the fact that appellant’s demand for this relief, resisted by the trial court, puts zeal for money recovery above the good purposes of the juvenile court act. We should note the mischief, undoubtedly unintended, in the 1984 legislation.
Costs-of-care cases involve the inherent appearance of excess on the part of a public authority that first imposes its will on a child and family regarding the choice of child care, often choosing care that is exceedingly costly, and then demands that the family pay for the alternative care. This posture introduces a serious threat to the trial court’s effort to work effectively with family members while attempting to *147carefully fashion judicial action that will achieve the high statutory aims of contributing to a better future for the child. See Minn.Stat. § 260.011, subd. 2 (1986). A universal additive of withholding orders, not subject to the discretion of the trial court, merely enlarges the prospect that these cost recovery proceedings defeat the court’s best efforts.
There is a three-fold danger in using withholding orders for these cases. First, the 1984 alteration of section 260.011 destroys the discretion of the trial court in appropriate cases to avoid introducing the topic of withholding.
The second problem is worse. As formulated under chapter 518, incorporated into section 260.011 by the 1984 legislation, the choice to compel actual withholding is left in the hands of the obligee, mostly independent of trial court discretion. See Minn. Stat. §§ 518.611, 518.645 (1986). Thus, the sometimes deliberately arranged course of judicial action with a family can be wholly upset by still one more entity which is empowered to act free of the trial court’s best judgment.
Given the mandate to issue a withholding order, the trial court can cautiously limit notices given to employers or other payors. Finally, however, disclosures of withholding orders risk open violation of the statutory mandate for confidentiality of juvenile court actions. Minn.Stat. § 260.161. There is risk that this notice at any stage of dealing with the family violates the confidentiality requirement. It is important, minimally, that notices advise a payor of nothing other than a financial obligation and the conditions of the withholding demand. In addition, with greater specificity than found in many current withholding orders, notice should be prohibited before the occurrence of the 30-day default and a 15-day delay after notice of default to the obligor.1 See Minn.Stat. § 518.645, par. 3(d). Cf Minn.Stat. § 518.611, subd. 2(a)(4).
I concur with the decision of the court, but with conviction that the concerns stated here are serious.

. The trial court may be powerless to limit disclosures if costs-of-care orders are subject to Minn.Stat. § 518.611, subd. 8 (1986), as amended by 1987 Minn. Laws ch. 403, art. 3, § 87. This enactment requires that employers demand disclosure of withholding orders by new employees. It remains to be decided, however, whether this mandate, expressly in regard to withholding on "child support obligations," is incorporated for costs-of-care orders by the language of Minn.Stat. § 260.251, subd. 1(d) (1986), discussed in the majority opinion.