Support through ASUME: the route without court

It is ASUME’s expedited administrative procedure: a route to set, review, modify or enforce child support without going through the courts, and also to determine filiation when that is needed to establish support. It is run by the Administrator or an Administrative Judge, has its own terms to appear and to notify, and ends in an order that can be taken to judicial review.

The procedure originates when the services the Act authorises are requested, or on the Administrator’s own initiative. It reaches the custodial person making the claim, the non-custodial person the claim is directed at, and any person who may be affected, who is the one notified to appear. The Act sets no maximum income, no age for the beneficiary and no residence requirement to request the services, and expressly leaves the court door open for anyone who prefers that route.

• The party the claim is directed at must appear within 20 days, or 30 days if they reside outside Puerto Rico, counted from the notification (Article 11(B)(2)).Verified against the official source
• Both parties must complete a form on their economic situation, sworn before a notary or authorised official, or certified with a warning of perjury (Article 11(B)(4)).Verified against the official source
• Agreements between the parties on support are submitted to the Administrator for approval under the Mandatory Guidelines for Setting and Modifying Child Support (Article 11(B)(5)).Verified against the official source
• To seek judicial review it is a jurisdictional requirement to have timely sought reconsideration of the order (Article 11-A).Verified against the official source

• A certified copy of the income tax return, an employer certification, or any other document evidencing salary, wages, other income, credits or movable and immovable property, when the Administrator requires them (Article 11(B)(4)).
• The form on the economic situation, the child’s needs and the capacity to pay, which the Administrator prepares and provides to the parties (Article 11(B)(4)).
• For the voluntary acknowledgement of paternity of a child born outside marriage, the Paternity Certificate, which the Act calls the exclusive means for that purpose (Article 11(B)(6)(a)).

1. 1

   Step 1: Understand there are two doors, not one

   Article 11(A) says that when the services authorised in the Act are requested, or on the Administrator’s own initiative, they shall originate an expedited administrative procedure to determine filiation for the purpose of establishing support; to establish, modify or review the order; or to require compliance from the responsible person. And it adds, in these words, that the foregoing “in no way limits the right of persons with capacity to claim support for themselves or on behalf of someone they represent through the corresponding judicial remedies or actions”, under the Civil Code, the Rules of Civil Procedure or other applicable law. ASUME’s administrative route is an alternative to court, not a prerequisite and not a substitute.

2. 2

   Step 2: What “expedited” means in this Act

   Do not read it as a promise of a concrete speed. The Act defines it itself: “The term Expedited Administrative Procedure used in this Article means that, from the date the petition is filed until its final resolution, cases must be resolved within the time period established by federal laws and regulations.” That is, the deadline is not in this Act: it points to federal regulation. We did not read that regulation, so we publish no number of days for final resolution, and that is why processing time is unverified.

3. 3

   Step 3: The term to appear, and what happens if you let it pass

   Article 11(B)(2) is the one most people need to know in time. The Administrator requires the party the claim is directed at, or who may be affected, to appear within a term of twenty days, or thirty days when the respondent resides outside Puerto Rico, from the date of notification. Notification may be in writing, by verifiable communication, by mail, and if the address is unknown, by public notice. It summarises the petition and the applicable law, and warns of the legal consequences, including this one: that failing to appear in the required time means “what was requested may be ordered without further summons or hearing”. You are given an opportunity to defend yourself, answer the allegations, accept, reject, object to, challenge, clarify or add facts, and submit documents or evidence.

4. 4

   Step 4: The compulsory investigation: what they can ask you for

   Article 11(B)(4) orders an investigation of the economic situation and capacity of both the payer and the recipient. It empowers the Administrator to require a certified copy of the income tax return, an employer certification, or any other document evidencing salary, wages, other income, credits or movable and immovable property. There is also a form the Administrator prepares and provides, on the economic situation, the child’s needs and the capacity to pay, made under oath before a notary or an authorised official of the Administration or the Department of the Family, or by certified affirmation with a warning of perjury. Filing the form does not excuse you from later supplying any other necessary information. And the Act says it plainly: those who supply this information are subject to the penalties for perjury.

5. 5

   Step 5: Staying silent has a price: imputed income

   This is the point that surprises most. That same Article 11(B)(4) warns the parties that the Administrator may impute, to anyone who refuses to disclose the information within the required term or does not answer properly or answers evasively, “the average income of the payer’s trade, occupation or profession, according to all available evidence, including estimates, studies and projections of income, expenses, lifestyle and any other pertinent evidence”, and continue the procedure, “including making a default determination”. Not answering does not stop the case: it resolves it without you, with an income assigned to you. A person affected by a discovery request may indeed ask the Administrator or the Administrative Judge for a protective order, with adequate notice to the parties within the term the regulation sets.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you reach an agreement, one step still remains

   Article 11(B)(5) provides that when the parties reach an agreement on support, the agreement shall be submitted to the Administrator for approval under the Mandatory Guidelines for Setting and Modifying Child Support in Puerto Rico adopted under this Act. And it adds that the Administrator may, at their discretion, order an administrative hearing to confirm that the recipient’s needs will be adequately met given both parties’ capacity to comply with what was stipulated. A private agreement between parents is not self-executing: it goes through approval, and may go through a hearing. The Mandatory Guidelines are what set the amount; we did not read them and we publish no support figures.

7. 7

   Step 7: When the order is notified to you

   Article 11(B)(3) sets fourteen days. Copies of orders establishing paternity or imposing or modifying a support obligation, including those denying a modification petition under the Administration’s Order Review and Modification Plan, must be notified to the parties within fourteen days of the date the order was issued. Note that denials of modification count too. Participants may opt to receive electronic copies of summonses, requirements, notifications and review and modification orders; for that, a form must be signed expressly authorising it and obliging the participant to report any change in contact information. Legal representatives may also choose that method.

8. 8

   Step 8: How to appeal, and the requirement that sinks appeals

   Article 11-A refers to the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act — the compilation notes that Act 170-1988 was repealed and replaced by Act 38-2017 — and provides that the adversely affected party may file a request for review before the Court of Appeals within thirty days from the date of filing in the record of the copy of the notice of the Administrative Judge’s final order or decision. And here is the trap worth knowing beforehand: “It shall be a jurisdictional requirement, in order to seek judicial review, to have timely sought reconsideration of the order being appealed.” If you did not seek reconsideration in time, the Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction. In support cases where paternity was determined, the aggrieved party may go to the Court of First Instance, which may treat it as review or hold a trial de novo.

Before the Child Support Administration. The procedure is run by the Administrator or an Administrative Judge, and judicial review goes to the Court of Appeals, except in cases where paternity was determined, where it may go to the Court of First Instance. The Act publishes no addresses, telephones, forms or portals, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Believing you must go to court first: Article 11(A) says the administrative route in no way limits the right to claim through the courts, and vice versa.
• Letting the 20 days pass thinking another summons will come: the Act warns that what was requested may be ordered without further summons or hearing.
• Forgetting the term is 30 days if the respondent resides outside Puerto Rico, not 20.
• Not answering the information requirement believing it halts the case: ASUME may impute the average income of your trade and decide by default.
• Answering evasively: the Act treats evasion the same as refusal to disclose.
• Putting inflated or false figures in the economic form: it is made under oath and whoever signs it is subject to the penalties for perjury.
• Thinking a signed agreement between the parents is already the support order: it must be submitted to the Administrator, who may also order a hearing.
• Believing only orders granting something are notified: denials of modification also fall within the fourteen-day term.
• Going straight to the Court of Appeals without seeking reconsideration: timely reconsideration is a jurisdictional requirement and without it there is no review.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración para el Sustento de Menores (ASUME)

  ASUME

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov