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with a local tribunal and seek protection from that tribunal | | pending resolution of the contest. This may be accomplished | | through the obligor's employment of private counsel or by a | | request for services made to the child support enforcement | | agency of the responding State. Some States provide | | administrative procedures for challenging the income withholding | | that may provide quicker resolution of a dispute than a | | judicially-based registration and hearing process. In the | | absence of expeditious action by the employee to assert a | | defense and contest the direct filing of a notice for | | withholding, however, the employer must begin income withholding | | in a timely fashion. |
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| | | In contrast to the multiple-order system of RURESA, another | | issue the employee-obligor may raise is that the withholding | | order received by the employer is not based on the controlling | | child support order issued by the tribunal with continuing, | | exclusive jurisdiction, see Section 207, supra. Such a claim | | does not constitute a defense to the obligation of child | | support, but does put at issue the identity of the order to | | which the employer must respond. Clearly the employer is in no | | position to make such a decision. When multiple orders involve | | the same employee-obligor and child, as a practical matter | | resort to a responding tribunal to resolve a dispute over | | apportionment almost certainly is necessary. |
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| | | Sec. 33. 19-A MRSA §3102, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. | | B, §2 and affected by Pt. E, §2, is amended to read: |
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| | | 1. Documents to state information agency. A party residing | | in another state or support enforcement agency seeking to | | enforce a support order or an income-withholding order, or | | both, issued by a tribunal of another state shall send the | | documents required for registering the order to the | | department. |
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| | | (This is Section 507 of the Uniform Act.) |
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| | | This section authorizes summary enforcement of an interstate | | child support order through the administrative means available | | for intrastate orders. Under Subsection (a), an interested | | party in another State, which necessarily may include a | | private attorney or a support enforcement agency, may forward | | a support order or income-withholding order to a support | | enforcement agency of the responding State. The term | | "responding State" in this context does not necessarily | | contemplate resort to a | | tribunal as an initial step. |
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| | | Subsection (b) directs the support enforcement agency in the | | responding State to employ that State's regular administrative |
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