Suspension of driver’s privileges is an underused vehicle to try to obtain compliance with an arrearage in child support. This is due, in part, to the fact that the law is new and most lawyers are not familiar with it. The second reason is that most lawyers handling family law cases focus only on the provisions of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (or the provisions of the Illinois Parentage Act). The provisions of these statutes seem to indicate that driver’s license privileges are to be suspended only in cases where a payor is held in contempt of court. However, many times it is difficult to locate a potential obligor to serve him (or her) with a rule to show cause. It may be possible to avoid the service of the rule to show cause by requesting the court to suspend driver’s license privileges by mailing the notice to the obligor’s last known address. To understand how this is done you should understand the overall statutory scheme.
