So you are divorced and your child is going off to college. What is the best way to get the other parent to contribute, whether there is an agreement that says he should or the agreement says that the issue shall abide the event. Should you A) consult prior to college and keep the other… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Child Support
Subscribe to Child Support RSS FeedJust Because An Adult Child Lives at Home, Does Not Mean Child Support Continues
Posted in Child Support, College, Custody, Divorce, Interspousal Agreements, ModificationThe number of college graduates living with their parents has almost doubled since 2007. Currently, over 45% of 26-year-olds live at home with their parents. The figures highlight the difficulty that many young Americans have had in establishing careers following the longest recession this country has faced since the Great Depression. Some children, although employed,… Continue Reading
Will New Jersey Child Support Awards Be Going Down?
Posted in Child SupportChild support in New Jersey for parties with combined net (after tax) income of less than $187,200 per year ($3,600 per week), are supposed to be determined based upon the Child Support Guidelines. The Guidelines are based upon economic data of what it costs to raise a child. That economic data has been reviewed and, as… Continue Reading
Child Support Obligation When the Child Won’t Speak to the Parent
Posted in Child SupportWhen there is a hostile relationship or a non-existent relationship between a child and a non-custodial parent, there is a possibility that the non-custodial parent may be relieved of the obligation to contribute towards college expenses. In my prior blog, I discussed the impact of college financial support when the child won’t speak with the non-custodial… Continue Reading
A Day That Will Live In Exigency: The (Over) Use Of the Order to Show Cause
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, DivorceI recently read a quote from Joseph Addison, an eighteenth century British author, which said, “Husband a lie, and trump it up in some extraordinary emergency.” It lead me to consider how family law attorneys categorize the notion of an emergency, often with a mixture of histrionics and hysteria, in contrast with how the… Continue Reading
DEFERRED COMPENSATION – INCOME, ASSET OR BOTH?
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Equitable Distribution, Practice IssuesVery often, we deal with cases where our client or his/her has compensation from employment that is more than just salary plus bonus. Rather, with all of the financial services companies, pharmaceutical companies and other corporations in this area, we see all sorts of different compensation structures, including stock options, restricted stock, RSUs, REUs, etc…. Continue Reading
Sperm Donation: The Gift that Keeps on Giving?
Posted in Child Support, PaternityIn the unpublished (non-precedential) trial court case of Rendon v. Ale, the Court determined that a biological father, who while married to another woman, donated sperm in order for another woman to be artificially inseminated was not insulated under the protections of the Artificial Insemination Statute. In Rendon, the parties, who were initially both married… Continue Reading
Laches? We Don’t Need No Stinking Laches!
Posted in Child SupportOkay, now that I hooked you with a bad movie reference, lets talk about laches. Laches has been defined in New Jersey family law as "… an equitable doctrine which penalizes knowing inaction by a party with a legal right from enforcing that right after passage of such a period of time that prejudice has resulted… Continue Reading
Alimony Modification – A Judge’s Checklist
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Divorce, Interspousal Agreements, Modification, Practice Issues, Property Settlement AgreementsMost people are aware that a supporting spouse may be entitled to modify an alimony obligation upon a showing of “changed circumstances.” However, many people do not know that the “leg-work” that they have to do to set themselves up to succeed on such a Motion begins long before the parties ever go to Court,… Continue Reading
Calculating Child Support in New Jersey: Applicability of Child Support Guidelines
Posted in Child SupportCalculating Child Support in New Jersey: Applicability of Child Support Guidelines
For Self-Employed Litigants, Is There A Higher Standard for Modification of a Support Obligation?
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Divorce, Modification, Practice Issues, Property Settlement AgreementsAs a continuation to last week’s post regarding what happens when trial courts fail to grant hearings to supporting spouses when they may be warranted, i.e. upon a showing of changed circumstances, this blog post will focus on those times where a hearing is deemed unnecessary based on the facts of a given case. This… Continue Reading
Another college case: What’s the actual ability to pay?
Posted in Child Support, CollegeAt the start of the week when most parents who have college students are writing that second semester check (gulp), the Appellate Division has decided a non precedential case in which a father objected to the trial court’s decision to make him pay 27% of his daughter’s college expenses at a private college. The case brings… Continue Reading
Motions to Reduce Support: When Applications are Denied without a Plenary Hearing, What’s Next?
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Divorce, Modification, Practice Issues, Property Settlement AgreementsIn this economy, you would be surprised to see how many judges are jaded by applications brought by supporting spouses to reduce their support obligations based upon a reduction in income. After all, some judges entertain these applications on their daily docket and oftentimes see supporting spouses who are simply attempting to capitalize on the… Continue Reading
Read Mark Ashton’s Interesting Post Entitled “Elements of Expense: How Employers Help to Make Your Life Expensive & Your Lawyer Bewildered”
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Practice IssuesMark Ashton, a partner in our Exton (Chester County), Pennsylvania office and former editor of our Pennsylvania Family Law Blog wrote an interesting post entitled "Elements of Expense: How Employers Help to Make Your Life Expensive & Your Lawyer Bewildered". In his post, Mark ruminates on the difficulty in deciphering the modern pay stub. Mark… Continue Reading
Income from Special Needs Trust to be Considered for Support
Posted in Child SupportThe issue of what happens when a parent who has to pay support has income from a special needs trust has been recently addressed by the Appellate Division in an unreported (non precedential) decision. In that matter, the father of a child had been involved in a motor vehicle accident several months prior to her birth. The… Continue Reading
Fox Rothschild’s Robert Epstein and Lauren Koster both featured in current edition of the New Jersey Family Lawyer
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Practice IssuesRobert A. Epstein, an associate in our Family Law Group resident in the Roseland, New Jersey office, authored the article, Imputing Income to a Non-Working Spouse During the Pendente Lite Period: A Violation of the Status Quo or a Practical Step Toward the Reasonably Comparable Lifestyle?, for the November 2012 edition of The New Jersey Family… Continue Reading
Read Matt Levitsky’s Post Entitled “Who Gets to Claim the Child if there is 50/50 Custody?”
Posted in Child Support, Tax ExemptionMatt Levitsky, an associate in our Montgomery County, Pennsylvania office wrote a guest blog for our fir’s Pennsylvania Family Law Blog entitled "Who Gets to Claim the child if there is 50/50 Custody?" Matt’s post talks about the four prong test and the fact that at the end of the day, all other things being equal, the… Continue Reading
I’m Entitled To Cost of Living Increases on Alimony, Right?
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Modification, Practice IssuesInflation impacts everyone, right? As a result, one would think that alimony would routinely be subject to cost of living adjustments (COLA). In fact, we know that Rule 5:6B of the New Jersey Rules of Court states that "(a)ll orders and judgments that include child support entered, modified, or enforced on or after [the effective date of… Continue Reading
Want Your Day In Court? Think Twice.
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Divorce, Equitable Distribution, OtherDivorce filings seem to be at an all-time high and, to no surprise, the trial courts are feeling the pressure. Documents filed with the court can get lost in the shuffle. Although motions should be addressed within 24 days from the initial filing date, it can take months until the court actually makes a decision. By then,… Continue Reading
Taxes and the Child Support Guidelines
Posted in Child SupportBeware the tax calculations in the child support guidelines’ automatic calculator. You be getting less support that you should be. At a time when the NJ Child Support guidelines are notoriously low, it is important to make sure that an obligor’s net income is appropriately calculated in order to asses whether the correct amount of… Continue Reading
Should Income Be Averaged for Alimony and Child Support Purposes When the Components That Made Up the Income Have Changed?
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Practice IssuesIt is not unusual to use a three or five year average of someones income when calculating alimony and/or child support if their income fluctuates. Why does income fluctuate? Sometimes people earn commissions based upon sales which vary from year to year. Sometimes the economy or other reasons dictate how much of a bonus they get…. Continue Reading
The Anti-Climactic End of the Tannen Saga – The Supreme Court Weighs In, Sort Of
Posted in Alimony, Child Support, Practice IssuesA little more than a year ago, we blogged on the reported Appellate Division Case, Tannen v. Tannen, which addressed the issue of trusts in the context of family law cases. Relatedly, we blogged on the impact of income from a discretionary trust and whether it reduced a party’s need. In Tannen, the trial court,… Continue Reading
CUSTODY, CHILD SUPPORT & CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES
Posted in Child Support, Custody, ModificationIn these uncertain times, it seems as though everyone is talking about the impact of the economy. We’ve posted many blogs about proving changed circumstances for an increase or decrease in child support and/or alimony as well as a modification of parenting time. You can read a few of those blogs here, here or here. The trend continues. In… Continue Reading
Another blow for child support collection
Posted in Child SupportAs if it isn’t hard enough for custodial parents to collect child support arrears, the New Jersey Appellate Division just decided a case in which it was held that the United States government cannot be held responsible for damages when it fails to pay support arrears from payments due to an obligor. In the recent… Continue Reading