Vermont Statutes Title 15 Sec. 1313
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 15 Sec. 1313
- Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
- Foreign country: means a country, including a political subdivision thereof, other than the U. See
- Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See
- Obligee: means :
- Obligor: means an individual or the estate of a decedent that:
- Responding state: means a state in which a petition or comparable pleading for support or to determine parentage of a child is filed or to which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded for filing from another state or a foreign country. See
- Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or foreign country. See
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U. See
- Support enforcement agency: means a public official, governmental entity, or private agency authorized to:
- Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision, or directive whether temporary, final, or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse, or a former spouse, which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support, or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See
- Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency, or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce, or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See
§ 1313. Costs and fees
(a) The petitioner must not be required to pay a filing fee or other costs.
(b) If an obligee prevails, a responding tribunal of this State may assess against an obligor filing fees, reasonable attorney’s fees, other costs, and necessary travel and other reasonable expenses incurred by the obligee and the obligee’s witnesses. The tribunal may not assess fees, costs, or expenses against the obligee or the support enforcement agency of either the initiating or the responding state or foreign country, except as provided by other law. Attorney’s fees may be taxed as costs, and may be ordered paid directly to the attorney, who may enforce the order in the attorney’s own name. Payment of support owed to the obligee has priority over fees, costs, and expenses.
(c) The tribunal shall order the payment of costs and reasonable attorney’s fees if it determines that a hearing was requested primarily for delay. In an enforcement proceeding under chapter 16 of this title, a hearing is presumed to have been requested primarily for delay if a registered support order is confirmed or enforced without change. (Added 2015, No. 16, § 2, eff. June 1, 2015.)