Killinger v. Killinger (Nebraska 2019)

When a parent has a variable income, it is appropriate to use a three-year average to set child support. The father and mother, who had three children, filed for divorce. The father owned his own business, and his income fluctuated from yearly. At trial, he presented evidence of his income from the previous seven years. The trial court averaged his income from the most recent three years and set child support accordingly. The father appealed. He argued that the trial court should have used all seven years of income. In picking the most recent three, the trial court included an unusually profitable year. The court of appeals disagreed. It noted that the Nebraska Supreme Court has approved a three-year average. The court of appeals noted the trial court didn’t calculate the average correctly, but the error didn’t result in a substantial difference in the father’s average income.