Monday letters: Non-custodial parents getting raw deal

Family courts allow non-custodial parents to be jailed for paying the custodial parents’ attorneys in installments, if the child-support court order specifies that the fee must be paid in full.

Just recently, I witnessed a non-custodial parent get arrested in a courtroom because attorney fees of $3,800 were unpaid. This parent had receipts showing he had faithfully and dutifully paid the attorney in monthly installments over the past year, but that was not enough. The parent must pay $3,800 in full or serve 90 days in jail.

Imagine being incarcerated for paying your bills in installments. In America, delinquency on payment for medical bills, home mortgages, automobile payments, furniture bills and school loans do not result in incarceration. But non-custodial parents are denied equal protection under the law, and so they suffer substantial burdens that the rest of us are protected against.

South Carolina’s family court judges and attorneys must be scrutinized, monitored and penalized for violations of the very principles of our Constitution that they are sworn to protect and preserve.