GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Clerk’s office has adjusted the way it does business as response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including collecting payments for court-mandated child support obligations.

With people losing jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the county has created ways to stay current.

While the courthouse remains to the public for most business, there is still an online option in place where people could make their child support payments. For those where less than tech-savvy, though, they were able to use no-contact drop boxes to make their payments.

Depository Deputy Clerk LaShonda Hampshire-Baskin is a long-time employee of the clerk’s office.

“Overall, most Clay County parents with court-ordered child support were able to keep up with their payments throughout the crisis,” Hampshire-Baskin said. “Either because they didn’t lose their job or received a stimulus check that allowed them to meet their obligation despite losing their job.”

“The sudden influx of the 1,500-plus stimulus checks to be applied to child support case balances in our county certainly was a new challenge, but one that they [clerks] worked through quickly so local children and their caregivers could receive their funds,” said Mary Justino, Communications and Community Outreach Director.

For those in arrears, many stimulus checks were routed directly to the clerk’s office to be applied directly to those accounts.

“That helped a lot of cases,” said Hampshire-Baskin. “When it first hit, as far as the stimulus coming out, our system saw something it had never seen before.”

“It’s a weird silver lining,” said Justino.

Hampshire-Baskin has spent a lot of time speaking to parents on the phone, explaining the situation and available options. While the Clerk’s Office is not in charge of child support payment enforcement – there is a state-level agency for that – they do handle court-mandated obligations.

Typically, if a person is unable to meet their obligations, they may petition the court for adjustments to the original order. An adjustment may be granted, but the option to request it is available.

Hampshire-Baskin says that the Clerk’s Office has pretty much been “business-as-usual,” with the stimulus checks coming in and allowing many people to continue to make payments.

She also noted that Child Support Enforcement has currently suspended enforcement services. If a case is handled through the State of Florida Child Support Enforcement Revenue, and the payee has fallen delinquent, they have a little more time than usual to get back on track.

Between the stimulus payment, online payment capabilities, and no-contact drop off locations, Clay County residents who need to make child support payments have lots of options.