Fewer people in Cherokee County are divorcing, according to court records, but those who have divorced are having more trouble getting child support payments.

Officials said the economic recession appears to be forcing some married couples to hold off on divorcing because of the process costs as well as the potential loss of financial support.

Filings for divorce dropped between 2008 and 2009, from 997 to 949, according to Patty Baker, clerk of courts for the county's superior, state, juvenile and magistrate courts.

In January of this year, 75 filings were made, with 39 granted by the end of the month.

Divorce costs vary, depending on attorneys' fees, which are added to the base cost of about $100 to file with the court.

The statistics reflect the national trend for divorce in down economic times.

According to the National Marriage Project's annual "State of Our Unions" report published in December, the rate fell to 16.9 divorces per 1,000 married women in 2008 from 17 in 2007. The rate in 2005 was 17.3.

The National Marriage Project is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian and interdisciplinary initiative based out the University of Virginia. It provides research and analysis on the health of American marriages.

Another sign of the economy: more divorced parents are having to take legal action to collect back child support.

There were 256 child support contempt cases filed in Cherokee County Superior Court in 2008, according to Sharri Twyman, senior deputy clerk. That number rose in 2009 to 287. So far this year, 54 cases have been filed.

The amount of child support being paid to the Canton Child Support Office has declined from $6.15 million in 2008 to $5.84 million last year, said Dena Smith, press secretary with the Department of Human Resources said.

The office serves both Cherokee and Forsyth counties, but 70 percent of the cases are in Cherokee, Ms. Smith said.

Kate O'Driscoll, a personal advocate with the Canton office, said the decrease could be directly tied with the economy and more people out of work.

A bright spot, Ms. Smith said, is that the amount of back child report being collected is on the rise: $2.78 million last year, up from $2.67 million in 2008.

The state, Ms. O'Driscoll said, is being more "stringent" on its older back child support cases, which explains the increases.

The state government has numerous tools to collect back child support.

These include income deduction, early intervention through phone calls, intercepting state and federal tax refunds, intercepting lottery winnings of $5,000 or more, finding a noncustodial parent in contempt of court, bank or property liens and license or tag denial.

The state can also report noncustodial parents owing $7,500 or more to credit bureaus.

Cherokee's child support trend is also reflective of what's going on across the country.

Kim Bridges, president-elect of the National Child Support Enforcement Association, said many states are seeing an increase in requests to modify child support payments and a decrease in collections.

Most of the money states now are collecting is coming from unemployment compensations.

Ms. Bridges, who has worked in the child support field for more than 20 years, said this recession has been no less than brutal.

"I would say this has to be one of the worst ([times)," she said.

Attorneys Ron Debranksi and Peter Gleichman of Gleichman & Debranksi in Woodstock said the economy has affected their divorce clients.

The trend before the recession was for divorcing couples to fight about who will keep the home, Debranski said.

"Now, it's who will take the house and the debt," he said, adding many homes have either no equity or negative equity due to the downturn. People also are more hesitant to hire attorneys and start divorce proceedings.

Gleichman said they're also seeing more people "dealing with the loss of employment" and requesting their child support payments be modified.

Payment recipients, he said, are informing him the noncustodial parents of their children aren't paying.

As a result of the downturn, Gleichman said more clients are considering filing for bankruptcy along with filing for divorce.

Both attorneys said despite this, it appears the financial situation for many of their clients is improving.

"People are feeling a little more confident, especially in the last month," Debranksi said.