As a San Bernardino Divorce Attorney I often get asked HOW DOES UNIFORM GUIDELINE FOR SUPPORT WORK ????
I think I am paying too much and want to know what the courts must consider.
Here is my answer:
1. A parent's first and principal obligation is to support his or her minor children according to that parents circumstances and station in life.
2. BOTH parents are mutually responsible for the support of their children.
3. The GUIDELINE takes into account each parent's actual income and level of responsibility for the children. Example: How much time are the children with each parent.
4. EACH parent should pay for the support of the children according to his or her ability. This ability to gain income . . . you can't just say I am not working or I am in school ,,, you have an equal duty to support and the Court will access and income is your not making one.
5. The interest of children is the States top priority. Not your interest ,,, the State does not care if you don't have money left to pay your bills.
STOP !!! DON'T VOLUNTEER INFORMATION TO DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES BEFORE MEETING WITH AN ATTORNEY.
6. The Children should share the standard of living of the custodial household ....
7. Support is always modifiable to reflect the increased costs of raising children and changes in income of the parents. You CAN'T WAIVE CHILD SUPPORT it is not right so it is not biding in a court of law. Be careful when you are told "give me custody and I won't seek support" this is not binding.
8. The court presumes the parent having primary physical responsibility [time] with the children contributes a significant portion of available resources for the support of the children and so it is the OTHER PARENT THE COURT CONSIDERS NON-CUSTODIAL AND CALCULATES SUPPORT BASED ON THE PERCENTAGE OF TIME HE OR SHE SPENDS WITH THE CHILDREN. So PERCENT is an important factor in how much support you will be paying.
Here is an example . . . in working out a support order your more likely than not to use a computer program which computes "guideline" child support . . . the higher percent of time in your collum the better . . . 25% is better than 20% and 35% is better than 25% and so on and so on . . .
I WILL PROVIDE MORE IN MY NEXT BLOG . . .
