Berks County Domestic Relation

This was my first time at Berks County Domestic Relations office. There were 2 people in line in front of me. I was in my wheelchair due to not being able to walk from parking garage to the courthouse. Everyone from the guards at x-ray machine, the woman at the window where I got the paperwork I had to fill out to my Intake Interviewer - Brittani Walters- were awesome. Since I have never had to go to this office and was somewhat confused about what to do and where to go everyone was so nice and helpful during this extremely hard and nerve racking process. I was told by my attorney what to do, what forms to ask to fill out, but when I did there was a little confusion. So I picked what I thought I should do, while I filled it out I called my attorney, she said no, no, no, this is what to do. I said well, they are calling me to go back for intake I'll ask back there if I'm doing this right. I had no idea!! Well when I gave my intake young lady she went to her boss to show him/her my paperwork and everything was good! Thank God, right. So we went through everything, she had me sign, she printed stuff for me, I had my attorney office on speaker so I made sure all was good B4 I left. Got my copies, she now sending copy to my attorney and my other parties attorney and I wait. Divorce sucks it's a big waiting game. Just get it over with already. When she wasn't sure about my paperwork and left the room that's when I got my attorney on speaker. I was getting upset. I was about to have a panic attack. She told me to just breathe and calm down everything will be ok. She ( her assistant actually) is awesome. She is great. She made me feel better. She was right it all worked out. My interviewer was so, so nice. She was so patient with me. Her calming voice calmed me down. Just going to Domestic Relations is intimidating - to me it was anyway - but it turned out to be a good day. Great experience thanks to all the nice and helpful people. And she gave me her card if I have questions or concerns to call her anytime. I went there with high anxiety and left feeling so much better and calm. I want to thank everyone who helped me, a person who showed up with no clue what I was doing.

Waited about 25 minutes caseworker was very nice, process was smooth and took less than 20 minutes I had no problems what’s so ever .

The few times I needed this department's assistance, I have always found them to be professional, curtious, and most importantly, informable. Thank you for your help!
Rose Robison

paying child support sucks but they tend to answer all my quetions pretty good when I call in. They are nice if your just nice to them first

When you marry someone your income becomes ONE. When you are merely living with your partner your income is STILL ONE. When you have 2 small children and solely rely on one income- yet the “custodial parent’s” income is only being based off of 1 -of the 2- married adults… please make this make sense?? In any and EVERY circumstance on this planet a married couples income is viewed as one. So why on EARTH would child support be any different? Step parents support children too!! I’ve been doing it for 5 years!!!

Terrible people who care more about the dead beat dad's not paying them the families . Rude arrogant people !

Anytime you call after 445 PM they either don’t answer or let it ring, pick up and hang up.. it has happened to multiple times over the last month. Just happened to me right now.

They are so reckless and irresponsible! There website never reflects what you've paid or what your supposed to pay. They never update your information when you change your address. So you can forget about being informed for your trial cases. They should fire every person in that office including the director! It's a joke and a severely broken system! Even the arresting officers admitted it that it's a broken system.

Let me preface this in saying, I really wish I did not even have to step foot in this office. Unfortunately, my son's "father" does not want to give up his rights, or even pay support, so I'm left resorting to this. If I have a meeting already in place, the caseworker I used to deal with was awesome and on top of her game. Unfortunately this last year has left me with nothing but disdain for not only the deadbeat but also this office. I cannot get a call back to save my life. I have been waiting on enforcement on medical bills and each time I get a letter, I'm told something different. Sometimes I get a voicemail but there's never an extension left so I always have to go through the main menu. Apparently the primary enforcement person on my specific case will be "Out for a while" is what I was told yesterday. So they escalated me to a supervisor Nisa Hertzog (whoever that is) and I was sent to voicemail. I left a voicemail with my name, case info and short description of my problem only to be ignored for over 24 hours. I have spent 4 months trying to get these medical bills paid and just yesterday someone told me I was trying to get bills paid from 2017. Funny because every single detailed bill I sent had 2018 on it. Hmmm. I even took time to stop into the office to speak to an actual human and was ignored by the receptionist. After she was done being chummy with the officers sitting back there, I was given a paper to fill out and that was the last I heard from the office. And that was 2 weeks ago. Let's call this what it is. Either side of the spectrum - either receiving or paying - these people don't care about the actual issue. Our child's well being. I am not money hungry. I just simply want what is fair. If someone is supposed to be paying support or covering the insurance for my child, I expect that. I did not think it was a hard concept but apparently no one really wants to take anything seriously over there. Unfortunate.

Trying to get a hold of a case worker by phone I love 2 hours away and their automated phone menu is set up where you can listen to different topics in regards to child support and cases or opening a new case etc. but to talk to someone by phone doesn’t give you an option unless you know a caseworker and their ext number. This is so unprofessional.

Very lazy workers in the child support unit

Intake people literally accept ANYTHING as proof of earned income. Whatever they decide you are obligated to pay or receive, do not accept this. Appeal to a judge. If you can, get a lawyer to help you. The DRS all need to be trained in basic customer service and more training is needed by intake personel. To have a department this clueless handling something as important as child support is a disgrace.

If guys only knew that child support is optional.
It's a private debt collection office.
They pay law enforcement officials to intimidate and do their dirty work.

Seriously how messed up can this system be? All the father's that go into the system here are looked at as low life's an the bad guy from even the judges. The website does not work at 10:40 am I call to update that I switched jobs and oh look no one is working for me to update anything. But then again look at who they have working. They are the criminals.

Always trying to throw people in jail when can't find work which in turn causes you to lose opportunities and not get work. What good does it do to stick a person in jail at the taxpayers expense for months because they couldn't find work and then when done they still don't have a job?..... Kinda messed up if ask me

There has to be a better way. This is not justice. My kid's mother is abusive & able to leverage this system against me. I became a criminal as soon as she submitted the paperworkExpect to be treated with disrespect.

I had a Court appearance scheduled for April 1 St . It's impossible to get in touch with anyone. I have money to pay but don't know where to pay it. Also money was taken out of my taxes a month ago and still has not gone to the mother please help!

This place is a joke ,I couldn't get custody of my daughter, yet they granted sole custody of her to my x girlfriend who was addicted to drug's . Now she has refused to follow the visitation order for over 3 months now and nobody will do anything about it here , just a run around, Must be nice when you're uncle is the judge and your friends with the social worker.

I've been on unemployment they've been taking out money for arrearages but it shows up in my credit report non paid and I did not get my $1200 check from the government

Trying to get information on my case, I called 8 times and every single time I was disconnected. Very unprofessional. They need a company directory to go directly to certain people