Child-support payments, federal funding caught in the middle of Texas court battle
March 3, 2008 | Posted by ANCPR Claiming that nearly $200 million in federal funding is at stake, the Texas attorney general’s office is involved in a faceoff with family-court judges over who has the right to collect child-support payments.
The high-stakes showdown focuses on Guardian Ad Litem, a Dallas-area child-support collection business run by Robert O’Donnell of McKinney since 1986.
For more than 20 years, family-court judges in Dallas and Collin counties have appointed Guardian Ad Litem in about 20,000 divorce-decree cases to collect and distribute child-support payments. He boasted a collection rate of about 80 percent and was quick with enforcement actions, including suing parents who fell behind on their payments. He charged each client $10 per month.
But in mid-February, the attorney general’s office announced that, according to federal and state law, it was obligated to take immediate control of about 2,300 of Guardian Ad Litem’s cases – an action that Mr. O’Donnell and some family-court judges believe will disrupt and delay child-support payments that are counted on by custodial parents to meet the needs of their families.
“There are [thousands] of families whose lives will be impacted,” family-court Judge Lynn Cherry said. “They may not get their child-support payment in a timely fashion because of a lot of legal maneuvering. It didn’t need to get to this point.”
But the state says it has no choice, citing federal law that requires child-support payments be routed through the State Disbursement Unit, a child-support processing center run by the attorney general’s office.
Parents must give their signed consent to having their child-support payments then rerouted from the state to Mr. O’Donnell’s business.
As long as Texas is not in compliance with the law, according to the attorney general’s office, the state risks losing $185 million in federal funding used to run its child-support and enforcement program.
Mr. O’Donnell’s business was well entrenched in Dallas and Collin counties when the law changed. In the late 1990s, the federal government ordered state governments to take over the job of managing child-support payments in an effort to boost compliance among parents who weren’t supporting their kids.
On Nov. 1, 2002, the Texas attorney general’s office created the State Disbursement Unit, which gets much of its funding from the federal government. Believing that such funding was at risk, the state soon announced it would comply with federal law by no longer forwarding child-support payments to Mr. O’Donnell’s Guardian Ad Litem business unless parents specifically signed a consent form.
Mr. O’Donnell then sued in federal court challenging the state’s interpretation of the law. He argued that when the courts appointed him to collect and distribute child support, he already had the implied consent of parents when they signed their divorce decrees.
While the federal suit was pending, the attorney general continued to route child-support payments to Guardian Ad Litem. In late 2005, the federal district court rejected Mr. O’Donnell’s arguments, and its decision was upheld on appeal in 2007.
Since the state announced it would no longer send payments to Mr. O’Donnell’s business, the legal maneuvering has been fast and furious.
Judge Cherry, of the 301st Family District Court in Dallas, issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the attorney general’s office from redirecting child-support payments. A hearing on the order is set for March 14.
Meanwhile, the attorney general filed a request for a mandamus – an extraordinary judicial order – to the Fifth District State Court of Appeals. In stark and dramatic terms, the attorney general’s brief argued that the court’s intervention was needed to avoid the “choice between repeatedly violating federal law or violating each of these standing court orders” – referring to the divorce decrees that assigned child-support collection duties to Mr. O’Donnell.
The appeals court denied the mandamus in a decision late Thursday, and the attorney general immediately appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, some parents contacted by The Dallas Morning News who have been using the services of Guardian Ad Litem said they’ve not had any problems.
“I’ve never been disappointed,” said Talana Mickens of Garland, who has been using Mr. O’Donnell’s business for a dozen years. “And they’re pretty quick to serve court papers, if payments fall behind.
“I’ve never had to call them. If he doesn’t pay, they just pick up on it and get after him.”
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9 Comments »
Well, this a fine example of Judge Roy Bean justice. I get called down to the AG’s office in 2007 on unjust allegations that I owe $22 k in back child support AND requested to take a DNA test for an illegitamate child born 2 years AFTER my divorce.Needless to say, when you walk in with your attorney, THEIR attitude changes in a hurry. Apparently my ex was betting that I didn’t keep the canceled checks pertaining to a temporary order from 2000. Nice try sweetheart. The DNA test was a mere throw of the dice on their part to see if any my dots lined on up with the kid’s. How pathetic. I think after that the lady at the AG’s office saw through my ex and have been more than eager to assist ME since then. Well, the other day ( May 2008) I get served by the Guardian AD Litem’s office….particularly Mr. Odonnell accusing me of being a perpetual offender and will continue to be one. he conciously made the decision to attack me meliciously knowing that the AG office stripped him of his duties as of February of this year. Now I have to waste a day of work to go defend myself again. This time they can throw me in jail if they want to. I’ve worked at the same employer for 34 years and my CS comes out every week…where it goes from there is NOT my concern. You can bet your bottom dollar I will persue a lawsuit of my own against Mr. O’Donnell and the AG’s office.We’re caught in the middle of their battle over federal funds and are being unjustly attacked because of their egos and greed. If at all possible I’d like to get a class action suit initiated with people in the same situation as myself. if you’d like to witness this atrocity in person go down to the 303rd district court June 19 and see the multitude of victims sitting in the hall .
I’m all for a class action suit against Mr. O’Donnell and his firm. He’s harassed me and my family for the last 17 years. We even had several different deputies that served me over the course of that time (for outrageous sums of money that my current attorney couldn’t even figure the math out on) tell us that someone needed to have his firm investigated because one of the Judges at the time signing all his orders was a brother-in-law to O’Donnell himself. Funny, but after finally retaining a private attorney I never heard another thing out of him. I think their needs to be a public outcry to have him and his firm investigated because he’s “a snake in the grass”; and that’s quoting one of the deputies who showed up on my doorstep! When I went to the Dallas County Courthouse to visit with him one time to try and straighten it all out, he had his own little set up where he “dealt” with you so that you didn’t have to see a judge (which he didn’t recommend since he could take care of it right then) and a sign in sheet longer than a yearly calendar. My own attorney has said that she’s not a clue what he bases his numbers off of and he’s not quick to return calls if at all. I have all my receipts too, despite him saying I was $300 behind, but yet it was gonna cost me over $2500 to “be caught up and all good” with his firm…….something isn’t adding up; except his pocket book.
Well folks he is a crook! now the ag has shut him down I think all parents that paid via his company should get all our fees back. I never signed a thing saying to direct my cp via his company. I know first hand that he has paid off judges from the beginning. Bob O’Donnell his father was a judge in Dallas and he appointed child support to his sons company! so he’s a snake in the grass too. Robert has had his hands slapped more then once for acting like a attorney and giving legal advice and he is not an attorney. he has in the past gone in Partnerships with several people and always ends up RIPPING them off too! YES HE IS A SNAKE IN THE GRASS! his wife is so ashamed of him she would not even take his name when they got married, Julie Vargo yes the writer and contributor to the Dallas Morning News. This idiot even went as far as to hire an Attorney or two from the Attorney General so he could get the inside track. yes he is a snake in the grass! Just to show how ignorant this guy is he tried to run for city council in McKinney and was blown out of the water. See McKinney is still small enough that if your a CROOK AND AN IDIOT AND A LIAR people do find out! may Robert O’Donnell burn in HELL for the nightmares he has put innocent people through. he has everyone around him FOOLED! including his Father, Wife, Mother, Children and his Attorney. I would venture to say that maybe just maybe some time in the future you will find his picture along side the word CROOK in Websters Dictionary! we can only hope.
O’Donnell – Anybody notice that that name is the same as the former judge for the 301st?
“Justice” O’Donnell started this scheme for his son to run and requred all his court cases to go through “Bo Brown”. ALL of them. No choice. And… Mrs “Justice” O’Donnell is (or was) the bookeeper/office manager for the company. Talk about nepotism. Judge O’Donnell created a pretty good retirement plan for himself. Wonder what’s in it for Judge Cherry?
13
Judge Cherry is cleaning up Rankin’s mess
Bo Brown was a crook
ODonnell swore in Rankin, and his son
was the ad litem
all in it together
Since Bo Brown was the cause of my husband going to jail,even though payments came out of his checks, my husband is now a stay at home dad. He no longer works. they get NOTHING from us
Thanks! Have a great day!!
They weren’t routing to his ex wife anyway-
they were keeping the money going to the ad litem.
good luck finding us!!!! CROOKS!!!
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That idiot deserves everything he gets. If anyone has started a class action lawsuit, please contact me. I want to be involved. Why are articles reporting $10 per month fee. That guy charged me $100 per month for 1 year and tried to charge me another year but I refused to pay it and went to court and successfully fought him. The judge told him to shut up after she refused to send me to jail over fraudjulent contempt orders filed by him. The guy turned bloodshot red. It was the greatest day of my life. He is an idiot and a crook and will burn in Hell for the crimes that he has committed..
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