Child Support –  You Need An Expert

In San Diego, child support can be a particularly volatile issue for parents considering the cost of living and the expense of providing for an education in Southern California. The family court uses a complicated standardized formula to determine the correct amount of child support. This approach is designed to ensure that everyone is treated fairly using the same set of rules for all. Unfortunately, mistakes made when calculating incomes and deductions can have a devastating impact on the lives of both parents and children.

Child Support Split Custody

Since San Diego child support calculations also take into consideration the amount of time each parent spends raising the children, making sure that the courts calculate this time correctly is crucial. Without expert help, the court may over or under estimate the parent’s ability to pay, doing more harm than good. Having an experienced attorney like Kathy Recordon is critical.

Child Support Must Be Fair

Unfair child support works both ways. Support payments that are too low will not meet the current and future needs of your children and child support payments that are too high can rob a parent’s ability to survive. Obviously, child support settlements need to be sensitive not only to the needs of the child, but to the parent’s finances as well. Simply put, it is impossible to meet the support requirements if the amount exceeds the ability to pay or bankrupts the non-custodial parent. But at the same time, this cannot be used as an excuse to not work or not earn an income that would otherwise be necessary to support the children as if the parents were still together.

Although the actual California child support formula is complicated, for the most part child support agreements are calculated based on two main factors.

• The current gross income of both parents.
• The amount of time that the children spend with each parent.

Contrary to popular belief, one parent cannot avoid the requirement to make fair child support payments by simply “giving up” visitation or custody rights. Since the added financial burden on the custodial parent would increase due to the lack of involvement by the other parent, the child support requirement would actually increase. In short, there is no way to “get out” of making child support payments. The key is to make sure that the child support agreement has been calculated correctly so that everyone can get on with their lives and prosper.

Child Support Enforcement

Following a California child support order is not optional, it’s the law. That being the case, some parents still insist on finding excuses to skip payments or completely fail to pay child support altogether. When this happens, former spouses tend to use emotional pleas or even resort to making hollow threats to get away with it. A child’s future cannot be bargained with by either parent and the San Diego courts have no sense of humor when side deals go bad.

San Diego child support payments are only for the purpose of caring for the needs of your children. Unfortunately many parents try to gain extra child support money as a substitute for spousal support. Or even worse, some parents use the child support money for their own personal use rather than supporting the needs of their children. Proper legal enforcement of child support orders is necessary whenever child support agreements are not being followed.

Situations Change

No matter which side of the issue you are on, you are required to abide by the child support requirements set by the San Diego courts. However, financial needs and situations do change periodically. Costs of living and education fluctuate as do wages and income potential. Because of this, San Diego child support orderss are rarely “cast in stone” permanently, and in fact, changes to child support orders are very common. Kathy Recordon recognizes that as your attorney she may be called upon many times during the life of your support agreement to help make adjustments, and she takes this long term relationship to heart.