Alabama Divorce Children

Alabama divorce children applies to the Alabama divorce law. If you live in Alabama and file for a divorce and you have children, there are 2 subjects that are important for you: child custody and child support. By knowing your rights you will be better prepared when you bring your case to the court. Furthermore, the Alabama Child Support Enforcement has been created to assure that the court orders are carried out properly.

Alabama Child Custody

The Alabama courts aim to do as much as possible to reduce the emotional damage of the involved children and to keep the stress on them as low as possible. In first instance, the parents are responsible to come up with a child custody arrangement. Be it a single custody or a joint custody agreement. This child custody agreement must be approved by the court. If the parents do not present a child custody agreement, the court will take over. The court collects the necessary information and issues a child custody order. The parents need to comply with it (see Alabama Child Support Enforcement).

The court is allowed to assign the father or the mother as the custodial parent. The court considers the moral character and the prudence of the parents, the gender of the children and the age of the children. The safety and the well-being of the children are also taken into account in Alabama Divorce Children.

If the mother went away and the children have reached the age of 7, the father will get the child custody. Of course the court will always look at the suitability of custodial parent.

If the parents separate voluntarily, the court has the power to assign the child custody to the father or to the mother. He or she will be granted the decision power about the education and well being of the children. For such, the court issues a 20 days notice to both parents (For more details see Code of Alabama, Title 30, Chapter,3-1).

Alabama Child Support Guidelines

The basis of the Alabama child support guidelines is the Income Shares Model. The courts for Alabama divorce children use this model to calculate child support. The monthly amount is based on the incomes of both parents. In pinciple, the parents need to contribute proportionally. The parent with the highest income will pay the difference to the other. The verification of the incomes are ususally done by examining past W-2's. To assist in child support calculation, the courthouse provides Child support worksheets on request.

When the parties cannot agree, the court will apply the state support guidelines which are presumed to be correct unless the court feels a deviation form the amount is appropriate. The court will deviate from the guidelines if the parties agree to do so or it believes it is necessary in order to establish an order that is in the best interests of the children. The parents are required to file an income and expense affidavit along with w-2's to verify income. (Code of Alabama - Title 30 - Chapters: 3-1).

Alabama Child Support Enforcement

The Child Support Enforcement Division is a combined Federal and State initiative for Alabama divorce children. When needed, the CSE or IV-D helps families to establish paternity. They obtain orders for payment of child support. They oversee if child support court orders are carried out properly.

Non-payment of child support contributions by one or both parents, largely contributes to child impoverishment. The Child Support Enforcement Division helps families to collect the monthly payments from the non-contributing parents.