A Child Support Non-Disbursement Order Must be Honored Even if the Workers’ Compensation Settlement is Less Than $5,000.00.

July 24th, 2017

In Coffman v. Kline, 2017 WL 3123867, (Pa. Super., July 24, 2017), the Lehigh County domestic relations section (DRS) filed a petition on behalf of a mother seeking to hold a workers’ compensation claim servicer in contempt for disbursing workers’ compensation settlement proceeds of less than $5,000.00 in violation of the DRS non-disbursement order. The Lehigh County court dismissed the petition. The Pennsylvania Superior Court held that the workers’ compensation claim servicer was required to comply with the non-disbursement order, even though the settlement amount was less than $5,000.00, and that DRS established by a preponderance of the evidence that the workers’ compensation claim servicer willfully violated the non-disbursement order with wrongful intent, and, thus, could be held in contempt. Opinion by Bowes, J.

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