Articles Posted in Child Support

A recent study showed that a total of $35 billion in child support is owed all across the US, but only 41% is actually paid. This is down from about 60% in 2009, largely due to the economic downturn over the past several years.

One thing many parents behind on child support don’t realize is that the court can, and will, alter your child support requirements if you legitimately cannot pay them. If you had a well-paying job when the court first established the numbers, it is not fair that you have to pay that same amount if you lost your job and cannot find another one.

The key is speaking with a Jacksonville Florida Family Law Attorney as soon as you can to help negotiate your payments. The court often will only lower your payments, but not reduce any outstanding amount you already owe. If your income drop is only temporary, this might not be an issue; however, if you cannot find new work, you are simply adding more and more money to what you will eventually have to pay.

Many parents in the Jacksonville, Florida area are under the impression that child support is paid throughout a child’s college eduction or until a child reaches the age of 21. Although this is true in other states across the country, it is simple not the case in Florida. In Florida, child support terminates when a child reaches the legal age of majority, 18. There is no statute or case law in Florida stating that a Parent has a duty to pay child support or help with a child’s college expenses.

However, there are always exceptions to any rule. For example, in Florida if a child becomes incapacitated or otherwise disabled and thus remains a dependent child, child support will more than likely continue. Conversely, if a child becomes emancipated through court proceedings or joins the military child support will terminate.

Whether child support was determined via a divorce action or a paternity action the termination date should be set out in the final judgment. If there is no termination date specified the law will dictate and the child support will terminate upon the child’s eighteenth birthday, unless, of course, the above mentioned exceptions apply.

Here’s an interesting case. Four years ago, a Texas man split from his girlfriend, who was moving to California. They evidently split on agreeable terms; so agreeable, in fact, that he saw no reason to decline her request for his sperm to use in her in vitro fertilization.

She gave birth to triplets. Though acknowledging his biological paternity, the man went on with his life. He got married. He had no intent of ever being involved in the triplets’ lives. That all changed when his former partner sent him a letter requesting child support.

Unfortunately for him, the California law required child support payments to be made while the case was pending. So, while making the payments, the man challenged the requirement to do so. The first court found that he was legally obligated to make payments, so the man obviously appealed. There was no law directly on point in California; however, there was a law preventing donors (like him) from filing paternity claims against women who give birth to children using the donors’ sperm. The man argued that the converse should also be true; i.e., that he should not have to make payments to a woman who used his sperm for her in vitro pregnancy.

In divorce cases in Florida, child support is required to be calculated in every marriage that results in children. The amount of support owed by either parent is calculated based on factors according to a formula set forth by the state of Florida.

Based on Florida law, if one of the parents is out of work and that parent cannot prove that they are employed to the best of their abilities, or attempting employment to the best of their abilities, then a judge can attribute the national median wage that is current to that parent. Currently, that median income can be as much as $40,000 per year.

Essentially, that means all efforts by someone who is going through a Ponte Vedra child support proceeding to improve or find employment need to be thoroughly documented and all efforts to find employment must be in good faith. If a Ponte Vedra parent is not able to be employed to the national median income level, they are better off being fully employed to the maximum of their abilities when facing a Ponte Vedra child support case.

Many parents in the Jacksonville, Florida area are under the impression that child support is paid throughout a child’s college eduction or until a child reaches the age of 21. Although this is true in other states across the country, it is simple not the case in Florida. In Florida, child support terminates when a child reaches the legal age of majority, 18. There is no statute or case law in Florida stating that a Parent has a duty to pay child support or help with a child’s college expenses.

However, there are always exceptions to any rule. For example, in Florida if a child becomes incapacitated or otherwise disabled and thus remains a dependent child, child support will more than likely continue. Conversely, if a child becomes emancipated through court proceedings or joins the military child support will terminate.

Whether child support was determined via a divorce action or a paternity action the termination date should be set out in the final judgment. If there is no termination date specified the law will dictate and the child support will terminate upon the child’s eighteenth birthday, unless, of course, the above mentioned exceptions apply.