How much child support will be ordered? North Carolina utilizes child support guidelines that consider the respective incomes of each parent, childcare expenses, health care expenses, and any applicable extraordinary expenses. The North Carolina Child Support Guidelines do get revised from time to time.
Child support is partially dependent on your child custody schedule. If one parent has primary custody, and another parent has visitation on alternating weekends, then child support will be calculated using what is called “Worksheet A.” If the parents share joint custody, where both parents have 123 or more overnights with the minor children, then child support will be calculated using “Worksheet B.” On rare occasions, parents will have split custody of the children and child support will be calculated using “Worksheet C.” Split custody is when one parent has custody of one child, and the other parent has custody of the other child. You can review the various child support worksheets here.
In certain situations, the court may deviate from the child support guidelines and establish a support amount that ensures the reasonable needs of the child or children are adequately met. Any motion to deviate from the child support guidelines can be tricky, so be sure to hire one of the child support attorneys at Robison Smith Law to assist you.
If the other parent quits his or her high paying job and is purposely employed at a lower paying job to evade or reduce child support obligations, then the court may impute a higher income to that parent. Sometimes, a parent’s bad actions, which have contributed to getting fired from their job, will also cause the court to impute a higher income to that parent. If a parent consistently calls out of work, has been written up for bad behavior, or fails a drug test, then the court may consider those acts of bad faith when deciding whether to impute a higher income to that parent.
In North Carolina, when you file a claim for child support, the court will only award you child support from the date you filed your claim. If you are in need of child support for up to three years prior to filing your claim, then you must make a claim for retroactive child support. In court, you may have to prove the actual expenditures for your minor child for the time period in which you are seeking child support, or the court has the option of applying the presumptive child support guidelines for that time period.
If you have applied for services through the child support enforcement agency, then you can still have an attorney represent you whether you are the plaintiff or defendant. With an experienced child support attorney by your side, you can feel confident that all your child support issues will be resolved.
At a minimum, you can request that child support be modified every three years. If there has been a difference in either party’s income which creates a difference of 15% or more in the amount of child support to be paid, then you can file a motion to modify child support at any time. This can happen if you get laid off from your job, through no fault of your own, or if you believe the other parent has gotten an new job where he or she is making substantially more money.
Set up a consultation today with one of the child support attorneys at Robison Smith Law. Call or text Robison Smith Law today at (704) 741-0220, email us, or set up your consultation online.
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