GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2009

SENATE BILL 817

RATIFIED BILL

AN ACT to increase child support collections by permitting greater sentencing flexibility for a person who commits criminal contempt by failing to comply with an order to pay child support.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 5A‑12(a) reads as rewritten:

"(a)       A person who commits criminal contempt, whether direct or indirect, is subject to censure, imprisonment up to 30 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three, except that that:

(1) aA person who commits a contempt described in G.S. 5A‑11(8) is subject to censure, imprisonment not to exceed 6 months, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three and three;

(2) a A person who has not been arrested who fails to comply with a nontestimonial identification order, issued pursuant to Article 14 of G.S. Chapter 15A of the General Statutes is subject to censure, imprisonment not to exceed 90 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three.three; and

(3) A person who commits criminal contempt by failing to comply with an order to pay child support is subject to censure, imprisonment up to 30 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three. However, a sentence of imprisonment up to 120 days may be imposed for a single act of criminal contempt resulting from the failure to pay child support, provided the sentence is suspended upon conditions reasonably related to the contemnor's payment of child support."

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2009, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 14^th day of July, 2009.

                                                                        _____________________________________

                                                                         Walter H. Dalton

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                        _____________________________________

                                                                         Joe Hackney

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives

                                                                        _____________________________________

                                                                         Beverly E. Perdue

                                                                         Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2009