French Civil Code
In forceI.-In the event of separation between the parents, or between the parents and the child, the contribution to the child's maintenance and education takes the form of maintenance paid, as appropriate, by one of the parents to the other, or to the person to whom the child has been entrusted.
The terms and guarantees of this maintenance are laid down by :
1° A court decision;
2° An agreement approved by the judge;
3° A divorce or legal separation agreement by mutual consent in accordance with the procedures set out in Article 229-1;
4° A deed notarised by a notary;
5° An agreement that has been given enforceability by the body responsible for paying family benefits pursuant to article L. 582-2 of the Social Security Code.
6° A settlement or a deed recording an agreement resulting from mediation, conciliation or a participatory procedure, when they are countersigned by the lawyers of each of the parties and endorsed by the clerk of the competent court pursuant to 7° of Article L. 111-3 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures.
In particular, provision may be made for the maintenance allowance to be paid by bank transfer or any other means of payment.
This maintenance may in whole or in part take the form of direct payment of expenses incurred for the benefit of the child or be, in whole or in part, provided in the form of a right of use and habitation.
II.-When all or part of the pension is fixed in cash by one of the titles mentioned in 1° to 6° of I, its payment via the organisation responsible for family benefits to the creditor parent is set up, for the cash portion, under the conditions and according to the procedures set out in Chapter II of Title VIII of Book V of the social security code and by the civil procedure code.
However, intermediation is not set up in the following cases:
1° In the event of refusal by both parents, such refusal having to be mentioned in the titles mentioned in I of this article and being able, when the pension is fixed in a title mentioned in 1° of the same I, to be expressed at any time during the proceedings;
2° Exceptionally, where the judge considers, in a specially reasoned decision, where applicable ex officio, that the situation of one of the parties or the arrangements for implementing the contribution to the maintenance and education of the child are incompatible with its implementation.
When intermediation is set up, it is terminated at the request of one of the parents, addressed to the body responsible for paying family benefits, subject to the consent of the other parent.
The second paragraph, 1° and the penultimate paragraph of this II do not apply when one of the parties states, in the context of the procedure leading to the issue of one of the documents mentioned in I, that the debtor parent has been the subject of a complaint or conviction for deliberate threats or violence against the creditor parent or the child, or where one of the parties produces, under the same conditions, a court decision concerning the debtor parent that mentions such threats or violence in its grounds or operative part.
III.-When the payment of maintenance via the organisation responsible for family benefits to the creditor parent has not been set up or has been terminated, financial intermediation is implemented at the request of at least one of the two parents to the organisation responsible for family benefits, in accordance with the procedures set out in article L. 582-1 of the Social Security Code, provided that the maintenance is set in full or in part in cash by one of the securities mentioned in 1° to 6° of I of this article.
When financial intermediation has been disregarded pursuant to 2° of II, its reinstatement is requested before the judge, who assesses the existence of a new element.
IV.-In the cases mentioned in 3° to 6° of I, the date of payment and the procedures for the annual revaluation of the amount of the pension paid through the intermediary of the body responsible for family benefits comply with the conditions set by decree in the Conseil d'Etat. The same applies in the case mentioned in 2° of the same I, except where the approved agreement includes stipulations relating to the payment of the pension or its revaluation or has expressly excluded the latter.
A Conseil d'Etat decree also specifies the elements that are strictly necessary, including where applicable the fact that one of the parties has disclosed or produced the information and elements mentioned in the last paragraph of II, with regard to the need to protect the privacy of family members, to the payment of the pension via the body responsible for family benefits that court registries, lawyers and notaries are required to transmit to the bodies responsible for family benefits in addition to enforceable extracts of the decisions mentioned in 1° of I or enforceable copies of the agreements and deeds mentioned in 2° to 4° and 6° of the same I, as well as the procedures for their transmission.
