HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Office of the Attorney General is giving out free legal advice for parents and popcorn for the kids this month, as part of Child Support Awareness Month outreach efforts.
Child support specialists will spend a Saturday at each of the island’s three major shopping centers to take questions from parents about the child support process and enroll eligible applicants. And you don’t have to leave the children at home, according to Attorney General Doug Moylan – there will be balloons, popcorn and activities at each event, plus the opportunity to take a photo with Eric the Eagle, the AG’s office mascot.
“You’re going to get a lot of information about how the process works so that you don’t feel intimidated when you call them and say, ‘I want to apply for child support,’” said Raymond Ilagan, deputy attorney general for the Child Support Enforcement Division.
Outreach events will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day:
Aug. 5 at the Agana Shopping Center.
Aug. 12 at Guam Premier Outlets.
Aug. 26 at the Micronesia Mall.
The office also can connect parents who are sorting out custody issues with Inafa’Maolek Conciliation, a local dispute resolution service. For parents who are unwilling or unable to contact one another, there’s help from Erica’s House, which can facilitate no-contact custody pickup and drop-off, Ilagan said.
‘Make this positive’
There’s a reason the outreach is dubbed “Love Your Kids Month” by the AG’s office.
“We want to encourage visitation so that the child gets to know both sides, the mom and the dad,” Ilagan said.
He told The Guam Daily Post the outreach is meant to shake the bad reputation that child support sometimes gets, and to show that it’s about emotional support, not just money.
“Make this positive, so that parents can come to us and not fear that something bad’s going to happen to them. We do want them to exercise their rights for visitation and, by spending more time with their kids, maybe they’re not going to think, ‘Oh, I have to pay child support to her,’ but, ‘I pay child support so my child gets what he needs,’” Ilagan said.
“We’re trying to change the focus away from the money and focus on the children. This is for your children.”
Though the AG’s office doesn’t represent parents in custody battles, Moylan said the office recognizes it’s in the interest of the public to have kids taken care of. And with more kids growing up outside traditional two-parent homes, the courts and the child support system become the fallback.
“Having been a practitioner out there, people are refraining from marrying, they’re having children outside of marriage. The need for legal advice becomes important when they decide to split apart and that asset that they both created and are responsible for 18 years comes into issue,” Moylan said.
The OAG is working “for the best interest” of local children, the attorney general said.
“That is the government’s interest so that the taxpayers aren’t paying for welfare services that could be paid for by able-bodied parents,” he said.
Split-up parents, who can often be aggressive and combative when engaging in custody battles, also should be aware that hiring a lawyer won’t get them to pay less child support, according to Moylan. A formula is set out in law for how much each party must pay based on income.
“I always tell the parties whenever we go into court, it’s just the math,” Ilagan said. “All we’re doing is we’re taking your income information, we’re taking her income information, throwing it into our formulas, and it just comes out with a child support amount that both parties are obligated to pay.”
Those who don’t make payments should be aware of the penalties. According to Ilagan, that can include the suspension of a driver’s license or a pause on the renewal of a passport.
The seal of the Office of the Attorney General of Guam is shown May 4, 2023, at the ITC Building in Tamuning.
