LD 1522
pg. 1
LD 1522 Title Page An Act to Clarify the Status of Support Obligations if an Obligor Begins to Rec... Page 2 of 2
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LR 656
Item 1

 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

 
Sec. 1. 19-A MRSA §2302, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. B, §2
and affected by Pt. E, §2, is repealed and the following enacted
in its place:

 
§2302.__Support obligations when obligor receives public

 
assistance

 
1.__Definitions.__As used in this section, unless the context
otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following
meanings.

 
A.__"Assisted obligor" means an obligor under a court or
administrative child support order who receives:

 
(1)__Supplemental security income; or

 
(2)__Public assistance for the benefit of a child of
that obligor.

 
B.__"Order" means a court or administrative child support
order in existence at the time an obligor becomes an
assisted obligor.

 
C.__"Public assistance" has the same meaning as set forth in
section 2101, subsection 11, except that it does not include
medical care only.

 
2.__Presumption.__There is a rebuttable presumption that an
assisted obligor does not have the capacity to pay child support.

 
3.__Child support obligation during period that obligor is
assisted obligor.__For the period during which an obligor is an
assisted obligor and for 2 weeks thereafter, the assisted
obligor's child support obligation is automatically suspended.__
At the end of the 2 weeks, the obligor's child support obligation
resumes automatically at the same level at which it was suspended
unless modified by an order entered pursuant to subsection 4.

 
A debt previously incurred under section 2301 may not be
collected from a responsible parent while that parent is an
assisted obligor.

 
4.__Obligee's opportunity for modification.__The obligee may
seek to modify the effect of subsection 3 by filing a petition
for modification with the court or the department, whichever
issued the affected order.__The court or administrative hearing
officer may, by order after hearing, modify the effect of
subsection 3.__The court or administrative hearing officer, in


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