Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 63 > Chapter 17 > Article 5 - Administrative Process for Establishing and Enforcing Paternity and Child Support

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Arrearage: means amounts of past-due and unpaid monthly support obligations established by court or administrative order. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Child: means a person under the age of eighteen. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Costs of collections: means costs as provided for in § 63-3-370 in addition to the monthly support obligation. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Credit bureau: An agency that collects individual credit information and sells it for a fee to creditors so they can make a decision on granting loans. Typical clients include banks, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and other financing companies. (Also commonly referred to as consumer-reporting agency or credit-reporting agency.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Custodian: means a parent, relative, legal guardian, or other person or agency having physical custody of a child. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Dependent child: means a person who is legally entitled to or the subject of a support order for the provision of proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical care, or other care necessary for the person's health, guidance, or well-being who is not otherwise emancipated, self-supporting, married, or a member of the armed forces of the United States. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Director: means the Director of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services or the director's designees. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Division: means the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Duty of support: includes the duty to pay a monthly support obligation and any arrearage. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• judge: means any court or judge in this State having jurisdiction to determine the liability of persons for the support of another person. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Monthly support obligation: means the monthly amount of current child support that an obligor is ordered to pay by the court or by the division pursuant to this article. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Obligee: means a person or agency to whom a duty of support is owed or a person or agency having commenced a proceeding for the establishment or enforcement of an alleged duty of support. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Obligor: means a person owing a duty of support or against whom a proceeding for the establishment or enforcement of a duty to support is commenced. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Order: means an administrative order that involves the establishment of paternity and/or the establishment and enforcement of an order for child support and/or medical support issued by the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services or the administrative agency of another state or comparable jurisdiction with similar authority. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Parent: means biological parent, adoptive parents, step-parent, or person with legal custody. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Payee: means a custodial parent on whose behalf child support payments are being collected or an agency or its designee in this or another state to which an assignment of rights to child support has been made. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.