Child Support

When parents break up, child support is essential. An unfortunate fact of economic life is that a family cannot live as cheaply divided as it can together. After a divorce, the living standard of the entire family is often lowered. The court often finds itself in the unenviable position of having to divide a scarcity of resources. Also, there is the problem of changing the support for the child in order to meet changing needs of children and enforcing court orders against fathers and mothers. They either refuse to make court ordered support payments or who cannot do so due to circumstances beyond their control. These problems, when added to the issue of custody, visitation and the division of property in a divorce, keep the family law courts of the country packed to capacity.

Both parents have a legal duty to support their child according to their ability to do so. Most jurisdictions have support for the child guidelines in effect, which provide a formula for calculating support for the child based on a proportion of each parent's gross income. These guidelines are applied unless a party can show that application of the guidelines would be unjust and inappropriate in a particular case.

State child support considerations include many factors. Support for the child in divorce is generally one of the main topics. In 1980, several federal laws were passed, establishing certain guidelines for support for the child determination. The federal government imposed these laws because the large variations from one support case to another one similar to it. The overall objective was to give each state the ability to produce guidelines to increase a sense of uniformity from one case to the next. Due to these laws being implemented, support for the child payments increased approximately fifty percent.

State child support considerations

• Income of both parents
• Number of children
• Financial cost of raising the child or children

A child support case can be both frustrating and emotional. Lawyers can help. Based upon your state, a support lawyer in your area can help inform of your legal rights while educating you of your options. Don’t be taken advantage of by your former spouse. Receive the support you need to care for your child or children properly.

These guidelines also apply to those parents who produced a child outside of wedlock. A formula is used to determine the amount of support, which would have been present for the child before the divorce occurred. This formula has many variables, yet parental income is the main one.

In certain circumstances, parents can argue for more or less support payments. Modification of the support is a common occurrence in family courts.

Enforcing Child Support.

A major headache for custodial parents, children and society is created when a parent refuses to pay his or her court ordered support for the child. This failure on the part of non-custodial parents is a major cause of poverty in children. This not only affects the families but has an indirect impact on the society who must finance poverty programs to assist those in need.

Every state has established a chlid support enforcement agency that can assist you in collecting support from your spouse. This agency has responsibility for collecting the support for families receiving public assistance, and also, upon application for non-public assistance families. Applicants for public assistance must assign support for child rights to the state and must help locate the parent absent from the home. Failure to cooperate may result in the denial of public assistance.