Child Support

If you want to understand child support, you need to take a long-term perspective. Child support is often paid for a decade or more, and many of our clients require the amount of child support to be modified upward or downward.

Several factors go into determining how much child support must be paid. The most important factors are the relative incomes of the parents and the amount of time spent with the children. A change in either one of these factors may justify modifying the child support award.

We have represented countless parents who have sought to establish or modify child support payments. This can be a complex calculation, but one thing is clear—don’t modify the support amount unilaterally (i.e., without a court order).

For example, if you experience a reduction of income and decide to pay a smaller support payment, you run the risk that a court will determine that you violated your obligation. In that circumstance, you may be required to pay the difference between what you paid and what you were obligated to pay, plus a ten percent penalty. It is, therefore, important that changes in child support payments be approved in advance by the court.

Having attorneys who are very knowledgeable in spousal support is most important because:

In many family law cases, spousal support continues well after the conclusion of the divorce;

Even if a party is paying or receiving child support, spousal support may be ordered in addition to those payments;

Family law judges compare many factors, specific to each married couple and each case, which will affect spousal support

We have represented clients on both sides of a Spousal Support Order:

Protecting your interests in a spousal support agreement. Our client, the Mother, was married to a marketer at a Fortune 500 firm. Both parents lived in separate states after the divorce was decided. Our office established a connection with the court showing the father had, after the conclusion of the divorce, re-married a co-worker at his multilevel marketing firm. The judge subsequently imposed sanctions on the husband and his company.

Getting increased child support from celebrity father. We represented the ex-wife of an Academy Award-winning actor, who was seeking additional child support for her son. In addition increasing future alimony for the Mother, we convinced the court to have the husband pay all attorney’s fees and costs for the proceedings.

Blocking an increase of child support. Our client was a life enforcement officer who previously had no visitation rights. We successfully defended an increase in child support, which had proposed by the other party even though no custodial time had been shared.

Since 1994, we have helped men and women obtain and modify the amount of child support that the pay and/or receive.

If you have any questions about your child support agreement, please use the form at the right to contact us right away, or call us at 310.288.1990.