(a) In enforcing a child support obligation, a registered agency may not use threats, coercion, or attempts to coerce that employ any of the following practices:
- (1) using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to an obligor or property of the obligor;
- (2) accusing falsely or threatening to accuse falsely an obligor of a violation of state or federal child support laws;
- (3) taking or threatening to take an enforcement action against an obligor that is not authorized by law; or
- (4) intentionally representing to a person that the agency is a governmental agency authorized to enforce a child support obligation.
(b) Subsection (a) does not prevent a registered agency from:
- (1) informing an obligor that the obligor may be subject to penalties prescribed by law for failure to pay a child support obligation; or
- (2) taking, or threatening to take, an action authorized by law for the enforcement of a child support obligation by the agency.
Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1023, Sec. 73, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.