Registering an Office of Recovery Services (ORS) Support Order

Introduction

The Office of Recovery Services (ORS) can make orders establishing paternity and requiring parents to pay child support. ORS can enforce its own orders to collect child support and has its own processes for modifying child support.

If ORS does not enforce or modify its order you can ask the court for help. The first step to ask for help is to register the ORS order with the court and then ask for the order to be confirmed.

Process for registering and confirming an ORS support order

Registering the order and confirming the order are two separate steps. Registration happens first and can lead to confirmation.

Complete the documents

The party making the request is called the petitioner. The petitioner completes a Petition to Register ORS Support Order and a Summons, available in the Forms section below.

For the coversheet, check the box on page 2, under "Judgments" for $50 that says "Abstract of Judgment/Order of Utah Court/Agency."

File the documents

To register the order, file the Petition to Register ORS Support Order and a certified copy of the ORS order in the district court in the county where the children live. If the children do not live in Utah, then file in the county where the opposing party lives.

If you need a certified copy of the order you can contact ORS.

The petitioner must pay a filing fee when they file the papers with the court. If they cannot afford the fees they can ask the judge to waive them. For more information, see the Fees and Fee Waiver web page.

Have the documents served

The petitioner must have ORS and the other party served with the Petition to Register, a copy of the ORS order, the Summons, and other documents no later than 120 days after the petition is filed.

The documents must be served by one of the methods described in Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 4(d). The petitioner must provide proof of service once service has been completed. For more information about service, see the Serving Papers web page.

The other party has 21 days (if they were served in Utah) or 30 days (if they were served outside of Utah) to respond to ("answer") the petition if they disagree with anything stated in the petition. For more information, see the Answering a Complaint or Petition web page.

The other party's options

If the other party…	Then…
Files an answer	The parties can engage in discovery if they want. The court may order the parties to try to come to an agreement in mediation. For more information, see the Mediation web page. If the parties do not resolve the matter in mediation they can proceed to trial. See our Getting Ready for Trial page for more information.
Does not file an answer	If the other parties have been properly served and do not file an answer within the time specified in the Summons, the petitioner may ask for a default judgment. This means the petitioner can have the ORS order registered and confirmed with the court. The other party won't have a chance to tell their side of the story. For more information and forms, see the Default Judgments web page.

Enforcing a confirmed order

If the court grants the request to register the order it will enter an Order Confirming Registration of ORS Support Order. Once the court has entered this order the ORS order has the same effect as a court order. All parties must obey court orders.

If a party does not obey a court order, the other party may file a motion asking the court to enforce the order. The enforcement order can include a judgment for money owed. The court may also find a party in contempt of court and order the party to pay a fine or serve time in jail. For information and forms, see the Motion to Enforce Order web page.

Modifying a child support order

Either parent can ask the court to increase or decrease the amount of child support ordered if there have been significant changes in income or in other circumstances since the support order was entered. For information and forms, see the Modifying Child Support web page.

ORS cannot make orders regarding child custody or parent-time. If you need an order for those issues see the Custody Cases web page for information and forms.