Retired pay per ED

Hello,

As part of my divorce decree I was ordered to pay a portion of my military retired pay per the following paragraph:

“The Defendant shall receive 9.2% of the Plaintiff’s disposable military retirement as defined by DFAS plus any concurrent retirement pay, if applicable beginning August 1, 2014. The plaintiff shall ensure payment of this amount by allotment, if possible, or by pre set-up bank draft.”

Due to having no idea where or how to begin payments I did not begin payments until 30 Oct 14. I received a letter stating that payments were due to begin during Oct 2014 and responded with a query for payment instructions. Upon receiving those I began payment via an allotment from DFAS to her designated account. Those payments are automatic and in the correct amount. I have also recently adjusted the payment amount to reflect a modest cost-of-living increase.

I just received a letter stating that I have ten days to pay (via cashiers check) three missing payments or I will be subject to “court proceedings to collect the information required”.

My August retired pay is actually paid to me in Sep (at the end of each month) so I believe her first payment would be when I received my August pay.

I plan on responding to the letter with an offer to catch up the two payments over the next two payments as I do not have the cash available to pay via cashiers check. I feel like I’m being cooperative.

Does that sound reasonable and would a judge think so? A local person was recently thrown in jail for not paying alimony.

Who sent you the letter? Your former spouse’s attorney? As long as you take corrective measures to ensure your former spouse receives the payments that were missed, the problem should be resolved. While I can’t speak to what any individual judge would do in this situation, if a clerical/administrative issue delayed your payments, and you subsequently reimbursed your spouse for the missed payments, it is unlikely that a judge would find you in contempt.