NY Child Support Lawyer

NY Child Support Lawyer

When dealing with family law, the goal is always supporting the children whether it’s custody disputes or child support agreements. The law says that the parent who doesn’t have custody must contribute to raising the child through financial support. The parent is obligated until the child turns 18 years old or finishes college.

Child Support Guidelines in New York

For years, the way that child support was applied would vary widely until the Family Support Act of 1988. The federal government passed the act to establish a more streamlined and uniform process to the custody proceedings. There are three methods used to calculate the amount of child support owed each month.

• Percentage of Income For this type of method, the non-custodial parent’s income is added up in total and a fixed amount is given to the other parent for child support. Many states will use this method for all its cases.

• Income Shares In some cases, the court will take into account the income from both parents to determine how much of their income should go towards care for the children. That amount is divided equally between the parents and the non-custodial parent will pay half of the determined amount. This model operates on the basis of the standard that a child should get the same proportion of parental income that they would have received if the parents stayed together. For this reason, the guidelines use both parents’ incomes in the calculation and the percentages remain the same irrespective of the parents’ level of income.
• Melson Formula This method leans on the income shares method with both parents paying equally, but it’ll factor in cost of living increases over the years. The formula then figures out the total remaining combined parental income, the noncustodial parent’s percentage thereof, and applies the noncustodial parent’s percentage to a standard “primary support obligation” on the basis of the number of children requiring financial support.

The Percentage of Income for Child Support

Guidelines in NY Child Support consist of fixed percentages of gross income.  They vary only by the number of children involved.  They go like this:

1. Pay 17% of combined parental income for 1 child;
2. Pay 25% of the combined parental income for 2 children;
3. Pay 29% of the combined parental income for 3 children;
4. Pay 31% of the combined parental income for 4 children; and
5. Pay a minimum of 35% of the combined parental income if there are 5 children or more.

Determinations and Considerations

While the methods for figuring out the child support payments will touch on one of the previous 3 methods, other factors can come into consideration. For example, the custodial parent might make more money than the non-custodial parent.  The following considerations become important in a child support case: 

• Child support from another non-custodial parent
• Expenses for health insurance
• Day care costs and shared expenses
• Time spent and joint custody arrangements

Activities and the Children

Children are often involved in extra activities like sports, dance lessons or tutoring, which requires payments beyond the standard child support amounts. A NY attorney may be asked to petition the court for more child support based on changing needs. Activities can be quite expensive and will stretch the standard amount given for basic child support needs.

Tricky Assets

Unfortunately, not all parents want to contribute to the care and support of the child. They hide assets and move money to cloak how much they have. This is usually a tool to punish the other party after a bitter divorce. While attorneys work for their clients, they are almost always looking out for the children in the relationship who deserve care and financial support from both parents.

Requesting Modifications of Child Support Orders

A presumption exists that the correct amount of support has been awarded in by a judge in a hearing for child support in the state of New York. You might be capable of disproving this presumption if you need to by offering a written finding that the support (as was determined by the guidelines) is inappropriate or unjust under the circumstances. You have a right to ask for a modification in the order before it’s in place. The courts will determine whether to reduce or increase the amount of child support.

After a child support order goes into effect, you are allowed to request a modification on the basis of any major changes in circumstances.  Some common changes include losing a job or relocating. In addition, the legislation provides for an automatic review for cost of living adjustments every 2 years.

Struggle with Payments

After receiving a court-ordered child support agreement, there might come a time when the non-custodial parent stops paying support or struggles to pay all of it each month. The non-custodial parent can head back to court to see if the order can be changed while they’re laid off from work or going through a financial crisis.

Some parents stop paying because they get tired of giving over a part of their monthly paycheck. The custodial parent can head back to court. The judge might order the other parent’s pay checks to be garnished for child support. The child support attorney can help.

What is Child Support Enforcement (CSE)?

Every state in America has a child support enforcement (CSE) program.  In fact, many foreign countries have them also. The CSE program started back in 1975, when Congress passed Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. Title IV-D required all of the states to

• Enact and maintain statewide child support enforcement laws
• Provide procedures to demonstrate paternity when necessary and to obtain court orders for child support
• Collect and disburse child support payments, and
• Enforce child support orders when payments are not remitted.

In the state of New York, child support enforcement services are provided by Child Support Enforcement Units (CSEU) and Support Collection Units (SCU) in each county and in the City of New York.

The NY child support lawyer can help you from start to finish with your case against the other parent. After a divorce, it could be a smooth process or as contentious as the divorce was itself. You should be prepared with an experienced attorney who knows how to navigate family law.

Can I his license be revoked for nonpayment of temporary support?

New York laws are strict regarding driver’s licenses. If you don’t follow the rules of the road, you risk the loss of your license either indefinitely or for a specific amount of time. What most people fail to realize is they can lose their license in New York for something other than a traffic violation. It’s easy to realize your license might be suspended if you’re caught drinking and driving, but did you know you can lose your license if you are in a court-ordered agreement to pay child support and you fail to make the timely and appropriate payments? It’s not automatic, but if your ex-spouse decides he or she is going to file a suit against you, your license could be suspended until you pay.

If you are in the middle of a divorce and your spouse is required to pay temporary support to either you or your kids, you might wonder if this same rule applies. If your spouse fails to make the proper temporary support payments to you while your divorce is ongoing, do you have the right to ask the court to suspend his driver’s license? The answer is not black and white in New York.

License Suspension

The only rule set in stone in New York regarding license suspension and someone’s decision not to make payments to a spouse or ex has to do with child support. If your temporary support is child support, you could file a petition with the court asking them to find the money your spouse owes you and the kids, but there is no guarantee it will result in a suspended license if it’s not child support and court-ordered.

If your support is temporary support while you’re in the middle of your divorce and looking for a job after being home with the kids, there is a lesser chance your spouse will see his license suspended for not paying. The court does require this kind of temporary support in some cases, but there is no direct law stating the loss of a license for nonpayment of temporary support.

If your spouse is not paying the temporary support he owes you while your divorce is ongoing, you might have other options. You can file a petition with the court asking them to find the money for you. It might result in the judge amending the divorce decree to ensure you’re getting a little more in the settlement than you were before he decided to stop making payments. It might result in the court requiring he make payment immediately before they seek a temporary seizure of the funds through wage garnishment.

The law doesn’t specify what might happen in this exact situation in New York, but it’s up to the judge in your case. It’s also up to you. If you decide to pursue this in the court, you can ask the judge to find the money for you to continue with the temporary support. If your spouse stops making payments and goes to the court before you to let them know he is having financial troubles due to job loss or something to that effect, it might be a different story. He might be able to win this case, and you might find his court order to pay temporary support changes.

If you’re not sure how to handle this kind of situation, it’s best to seek legal counsel. Your attorney can help you figure out what options you have, how you can file for your support payments, and what you should do. Sometimes the consequences of not paying support are not what you might expect, and going forward with a case might mean you’re affected later when your divorce settlement goes through. Let your attorney walk you through your options before you decide how you want to proceed.