"Parents turn to hired guns in support fight"

Excerpts written by Pamela Ward, Austin American-Statesman Staff -- (August 28, 1994)

Ten years ago, Peggy Kasparek Leverett was divorced and her ex-husband was ordered by a court to pay child-support of $600 per month. She says she left behind a successful wholesale jewelry business in Dallas and came home to Austin to start a new career and life with her son. It wasn't long, she said, before the child support payments dwindled. She says the debt has grown, with interest, to almost $90,000. Her ex-husband, who has resumed making child-support payments, disputes the past-due amount.

Twenty months ago, Leverett hired an Austin company, Child Support Enforcement Inc.*, one of five such companies in Texas. There was no up-front charge, just a promise to try to collect the outstanding debt. The company, she figured, had an incentive to work on her behalf -- it would keep 30 percent of anything collected from her son's father. "I thought, if they get anything, compared to nothing it would be better than what we have," Leverett said. "From the day they took the case, things started happening. Payments come much more regularly now."

(Richard "Casey") Hoffman, whose firm was one of the first in the nation, is considered a national expert in the field. He has testified before Congress, appeared on network television and traveled the country speaking on the issue. He says unpaid child support is a crucial reason for one in five American children living in poverty. Nationally, overburdened state agencies collected money in only 18.7 percent of their child support cases in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 1992, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

After years of trying to work through the Attorney General's office to collect the child-support, Leverett said she had all but given up hope. Through Hoffman's firm, she finally found cooperation from government. She said state investigator Kim Matthews has been immensely helpful working with CSE* to enforce the case, as has Hays County District Attorney Marcus Hernandez, who was willing to file criminal charges against her ex-husband.

Twenty months after hiring CSE*, Leverett has regained a fighting spirit. "They justified my feelings. I no longer feel like the bad guy. It's OK for us to collect this money. I'm not wavering now."

* CSE Child Support Enforcement now offers its services to families as Supportkids.

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