Locating Non-Custodial Parent

• 1). Contact the Wisconsin Department of Children & Family Services through their website or by calling them if your ex-spouse is behind in child support or medical payments. Apply for case-management services if you do not have an open case file. There are no fees to establish a file or use their services. Request help from the case-management services to locate the non-custodial parent. The Department can enforce support orders and contact the non-custodial parent's employer to enforce child-support payment and medical orders and make payment arrangements to collect any child-support payments due to you.
  
  
• 2). Check the county property records online or by visiting the county recorder's office to determine if the non-custodial parent owns any real property in Wisconsin. The information may contain the mailing or home address of the non-custodial parent or his telephone number. The county tax assessor's records may have the person's current or last address on file.
  
  
• 3). Search the national open records website for background searches. You can also conduct a reverse phone number search. The background report is the most comprehensive because it gives you the person's name, address, list of property owned, court records, judgments and liens. The reverse phone number report gives you the person's address. Other reports are available such as court records, criminal history and other public records reports.
  
  
• 4). Hire a Wisconsin private investigative agency or attorney to conduct a background check to help you locate a non-custodial parent in Wisconsin. Fees vary, so interview a few agencies or law firms to find out what they charge, how long the process will take and what services they perform. Once you have located the person's address, you can also hire an attorney messenger service to serve any legal papers on them.
  
  
• 5). Contact the Defense Finance & Accounting Service if the non-custodial parent is in the military by writing to them at Cleveland DFAS-GAG/CL, P.O. Box 998002, Cleveland, OH 44199 or by telephone at 216 522-5301 or fax 216 522-6960. You will need to complete an Income Withholding Order if you want the child support payments to be deducted from the military service member's military pay. Include the service member's name, branch of service they are serving in, their social security number and telephone number, if you have it, and any other information that may be helpful.