Maine

Enforcement (License Suspension/Revocation)

Description/Goal

Begun in 1993, Maine's license revocation was designed to reach the 17,000 plus cases in 1992 in which support had not been paid in 90 days. The process is entirely administrative unless court review of an administrative decision or modification of the underlying support award is sought. The process remains entirely within the Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery until certification of non-compliance with a support order is finally issued and sent to the licensing board.

Maine's license revocation process begins with a notice to the out-of-compliance obligor that his or her name will be submitted to the appropriate board as a licensee who is not complying with an order of support. This will result in license revocation. The notice is generic and does not specify which license or licenses will be revoked. The obligor has 20 days from the date the notice is served to make a written request for a hearing. The certification is put on hold if the obligor asks for a hearing or files a motion to modify support with the court or requests an amendment of an administrative support decision.

To come into compliance with the support order, the obligor must pay current support, meet his or her health insurance obligations and either pay all past due support or enter into a written payment agreement covering payment of the past due amount. When an obligor comes into compliance (at any stage of the proceedings) he or she is provided with written confirmation of compliance.

If a hearing is requested, issues are limited to whether the obligor is required to pay support under an order of support and whether the obligor is in compliance. The obligor may raise additional issues such as the reasonableness of a payment agreement in light of his or her current ability to pay. Once the department issues a decision, the obligor has 30 days to file a petition for judicial review.

The child support agency may certify in writing to the appropriate board(s) that the obligor is not in compliance with an order of support. The certification may be based upon the lack of a request for a hearing after notice, an administrative finding of non-compliance after a hearing, or a court finding of non-compliance after judicial review. In addition, failure to comply with a written payment agreement without proving inability to do so may result in certification of non-compliance with a support order to a licensing board. Written confirmation of compliance must be submitted by the obligor to avoid revocation or obtain re-issuance of the license.

The focus of the procedure is collecting child support, not revoking licenses. Although over 23,500 notices of intent to revoke have been sent to non-compliant obligors since 1993, 3,400 licenses actually have been revoked. In fact, obligors are often given at least two chances to come into compliance before a certification of non-compliance is issued. Even after a certification is issued, licensing boards may send yet another warning, sometimes paid for by the Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery (DSER).

Cooperation between DSER and licensing authorities - ranging from the Motor Vehicle Administration to Bureau of Marine Resources (lobstering and fishing licenses) and the Board of Professional and Business Regulation (100 professions)--has been excellent. Licensing authorities provide an annual list of license holders to DSER. Over the years, as these authorities have been developing or upgrading automated systems, DSER has met with systems planners to ensure that the data elements needed by DSER were captured.

Results

Since 1993, Maine has sent out 23,500 notices of intent to revoke licenses. Over the eight-year period through October 1999, over $116 million has been collected from these once non-compliant obligors. Further, this procedure has contributed to Maine's overall child support performance including a doubling of collections since 1993 and a payment rate on current support for intrastate cases of 60 percent.

Location

Statewide. Maine's child support operations are centralized and state-administered.

Funding

Regular IV-D funding.

Replication Advice

Maine DSER managers strongly recommend the adoption of an administrative process for license revocation, housed within the child support agency. They also recommend a manual review of each target case prior to commencing revocation action for non-compliance.