(a) An obligor may request an administrative hearing upon receiving the notice described in § 36-5-702 to contest the department‘s intention to issue a finding of noncompliance to a licensing authority. The request for hearing must be made in writing and must be received by the department within twenty (20) days of the date the notice is served upon the obligor as shown by the return receipt or by the return on personal service.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 36-5-703

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Arrears: means any child support or spousal support associated with a child support order owed under a court or administrative order that is delinquent pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Department: means the department of human services. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Licensee: means any individual holding a license, certification, registration, permit, approval, or other similar document evidencing admission to, or granting authority to engage in a profession, trade, occupation, business, or industry, to hunt or fish, or to operate any motor vehicle or other conveyance, but "licensee" does not include an attorney only with respect to the attorney's license to practice law unless the supreme court establishes guidelines pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Licensing authority: means the board, commission, or agency, including the department of safety, that has been established by statute or state regulation to oversee the issuance and regulation of any license. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Not in compliance with an order of support: means that the obligor is five hundred dollars ($500) or more in arrears and the arrears are ninety (90) days or more past due. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Obligor: means any individual owing a duty of support. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • Order of support: means any judgment or order for the support of dependent children issued by any court of this state or another state, including an order in a final decree of divorce, or any order issued in accordance with an administrative procedure established by state law in this or another state that affords substantial due process and is subject to judicial review. See Tennessee Code 36-5-701
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession under the jurisdiction of the United States. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
(b) If a hearing is requested, the department shall conduct the hearing in accordance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, part 3, except that, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the appeal of the department’s administrative order based upon the hearing pursuant to this part shall be made by the obligor in accordance with the jurisdictional and judicial review provisions of § 36-5-1003; provided, that notwithstanding any law or rule to the contrary, the sworn certificate of the department, or its agent, or the Title IV-D agency of another state, regarding the issues in subdivisions (c)(1) and (2), shall be admissible in evidence and shall constitute a rebuttable presumption of the obligor’s status.
(c) The only issues for consideration at the administrative hearings shall be:

(1) Whether the licensee is an obligor required to pay child support under an order of support;
(2) Whether the obligor is not in compliance with the order of support; and
(3) Whether good cause exists in that case as to whether the sanctions of this part should be imposed.
(d)

(1) The department may enter into a consent order with the obligor, which is filed with the court, for payment of an arrearage owed by the obligor. Upon entry of such consent order by the court, the proceedings under this part shall be further stayed, unless there is noncompliance with such consent order as shown by the records pursuant to subdivision (d)(2). In the event of such noncompliance the stay shall cease and the procedures of subdivision (d)(2) shall be followed. Entry of such consent order shall constitute a waiver of the obligor’s right to any hearing on the issue of noncompliance with an order of support based upon the notice of noncompliance for which the consent order has been entered.
(2) If the payment records of the clerk of the court or the department show that the obligor remains in arrears and is not in compliance with the consent order for repayment of the child support arrearage pursuant to subdivision (d)(1), the court, through the department, shall, in accordance with § 36-5-705, forthwith certify to each licensing authority that licenses the obligor that the obligor is not in compliance with an order of support.