Child Support

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Getting a divorce is difficult and often overwhelming, emotionally and logistically. When you have children, things become even more complicated. One big hurdle: Coming up with a child support arrangement that’s fair to both parties and meets your child’s best interest. Whether you’re the parent requesting child support or the parent being asked to pay it, a Family Law attorney can help you negotiate the amount of the support, the form it will take, and the schedule of payments.

What Is Child Support?

Child support usually takes the form of regular payments one parent sends to the other to help support and maintain the well-being of their child. Typically, the parent who doesn’t have primary custody over the child will be required to make child support payments. The custodial parent is obligated to use this money to help pay for the upbringing of the child or children.

In most states, the noncustodial parent must continue to pay child support until the child is 18, or no longer considered a minor. Some states, like New York, give children the right to child support until they’re 21 years old.

What Does Child Support Cover?

Child support is supposed to help pay for the basic needs of raising a child, including food, housing, and clothing. Many states have expanded the coverage, however, and allow child support to be used for several other expenses, including:

Medical care
Educational expenses
Childcare (such as daycare or babysitters)
Transportation or travel
Entertainment
Extracurricular activities

Each state is different when it comes to what child support covers. Contact the Family Law attorneys at the Lento Law Group, or our affiliates, if you have questions about what child support should pay for in your state.

How Child Support Is Calculated

Child support is usually outlined in a legal, binding agreement ordered by a family court judge. You can get in trouble if you don’t pay child support after you’ve been ordered to; federal law makes it a crime to avoid paying child support.

The means of determining the amount the noncustodial parent must pay the other differs from state to state. Each state has a formula for calculating the proper amount. In some states, both parents’ incomes are factored into the formula; in others, the court only takes into account the noncustodial parent’s income.

The income sources you’ll have to disclose include:

Wages and salaries
Irregular income, such as bonuses or severance
Self-employment income
Pensions
Interest or investment income
Alimony
Workers’ compensation
Social security
Disability
Unemployment insurance

From this income, the court will deduct expenses such as taxes, required payroll deductions, or support payments to other children to determine the amount of income eligible for child support.

Before the court can determine what monthly amount the noncustodial parent should pay, it may also take other expenses into account, such as:

The time the child or children spend with each parent
The cost of health insurance for each child
Daycare costs
Each child’s age

Once the court factors in the parents’ income and expenses, they’ll settle on the amount to be paid each month—or at whatever interval the parents and the court agree makes sense for that particular family.

How to Get Child Support

Nationwide, child support is a legally binding, court-ordered agreement that compels one parent to make financial contributions to help the custodial parent maintain and care for the child or children. But the process for obtaining child support looks different in each state. Most states have an agency for child support services that you must contact to obtain a child support order. If you and the child’s co-parent are going through a divorce or the child-custody process, you can probably do the child support agreement at the same time.

Allowing for some variation in individual states, the process for obtaining a child support order typically follows these steps:

As the custodial parent, you’ll submit an application for child support services. You’ll most likely have to provide information about the noncustodial parent, such as their name, age, location, and phone number.
The other parent is served a summons, notifying them of your request for child support.
You and the other parent may have to appear in court. At this time, the judge may issue a temporary child support order so you can start receiving payments right away. The amount of money on the temporary order may not be the same as the amount on the final child support order.
The courts calculate the amount of child support the noncustodial parent must pay and issue the final child support order.

Do You Need a Lawyer to Determine Child Support?

Although most states don’t require you to work with a lawyer as you go through the child support process, most people find it beneficial. Child support services can only do so much for you—as state agencies, their resources are often stretched thin as they work to help all the parents like you who are negotiating their child’s support. An attorney with the Family Law team at Lento Law Group can provide you with the experience and guidance you need to make sure your child support order is sufficient and fair. If you have to appear in court or meet with your child’s other parent, your attorney can go with you. They’ll make sure your rights are protected as the two of you work out how to do what’s in the best interest of your child or children.

The Lento Law Group’s Family Lawyers Can Help