Williams v. Patton

I respectfully dissent. The court’s holding imposes upon divorced parents wishing to compromise arrearages in child support a time-consuming and expensive procedure, with little or no corresponding benefit to themselves, their offspring or society. Today’s ruling, despite the lofty rhetoric accompanying it, is but another example of judicially imposed make-work for the bench and bar.

The issue for our determination is whether the law which permits a custodial parent to obtain an automatic judgment for past due child support also prohibits the parents from making their own compromise bargain…