Green v. Green (Mississippi 2022)
When a parent’s annual adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000, Mississippi statute requires findings as to whether an application of the guidelines is reasonable. The parents, who had two children, filed for divorce. The father’s adjusted gross income exceeded $100,000. To set support, the chancery court followed the Mississippi child support guidelines, which set support for two children at twenty percent of the parent’s adjusted gross income. The mother appealed several terms of the order including the child support calculation. She argued the support amount wasn’t sufficient.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Clark (Kansas 2022)
Any modification to a child support order must be court approved. In 2002, the father filed for divorce. The trial court entered a temporary order requiring the father to pay support and maintenance and the mother to pay the mortgage on the marital residence. A divorce decree was entered later in 2002, but it reserved the issues of support and maintenance. In the interim, the father paid the mortgage, but didn’t pay support or maintenance. The mother requested a hearing, which the court denied.
Read MoreCarman v. Harris (Kansas 2021)
A child support order can provide for payment of prenatal and birth expenses if the request is made timely. The 2015 initial paternity order contained no provision for the mother’s prenatal medical care or birth expenses. Mother made no attempt to recover these costs until 2016 when she filed a request for the expenses and to modify support. The trial court denied her request and the mother appealed.
Read MoreEicke v. Eicke (Nebraska 2021)
Parents must be making a retirement deduction in order to receive credit in their adjusted gross income. In this divorce action, to calculate income for child support, the district court deducted a retirement contribution from both parents’ incomes even though neither parent was contributing. The district court also credited mother for the entire health insurance premium. She carried five people on the policy, including the parties’ three children, and the cost was the same regardless of the number of children. The final order awarded sole physical custody of the children to the mother and ordered father to pay support. The father appealed the final order.
Read MoreLageman v. Lageman (Mississippi 2021)
When a parent’s annual adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000, a court must make findings as to whether the application of the guidelines is reasonable. The final decree of divorce ordered the father to pay support in the amount equaled to twenty percent of his adjusted gross income. The father appealed arguing the amount was higher than the children’s expenses.
Read MoreJulie C.W. v. Frank Mitchell W. Jr. (Tennessee 2021)
The trial court has discretion over deviations from presumptive child support. In this divorce proceeding, there was a large income disparity. The father was an extremely high earner. The mother requested an upward deviation in child support. The final decree set support at the presumptive amount and ordered the mother to pay 10 percent of the uncovered medical. The decree acknowledged the father’s agreement to pay for the children’s private school tuition and up to $600 per month for extracurricular activities. The mother appealed.
Read MoreKelly v. Kelly (Nebraska 2020)
Parents may be responsible for reasonable and necessary expenses on top of the monthly child support award. The final divorce decree ordered the father to pay monthly support and a percentage of the children’s private school tuition, extracurricular activities, and other miscellaneous expenses like school lunch and clothing. The father appealed.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Poggi (Kansas 2020)
A district court’s decision has the discretion to apply the extended income formula for child support and findings are not required. In this high-income case, there were three child support orders: temporary, final judgement, and in a post-trial memorandum order. In the final judgment, the district court calculated support using the extended income formula and…
Read MoreMadrigal v. Madrigal (Kansas 2020)
The decision to apply the extended income formula is discretionary. A district court entered an order increasing the father’s child support obligation and ordering sanctions against him for failing to disclose a material increase in his income. The district court applied the extended income formula to determine support. The father appealed arguing the order lacked…
Read MoreJohnson v. Johnson (Wyoming 2020)
Overtime income can’t be considered as part of gross income unless it was earned in the statutory timeframe and is reasonably expected to continue. The mother and father divorced. They had four children. During the 2018 trial, the mother argued the father was voluntarily underemployed. While the parents were married the father regularly worked overtime,…
Read MoreDescher v. Descher (Mississippi 2020)
For parents with high incomes, the child support guidelines allow for a deviation when applying the guidelines isn’t reasonable. The parents filed for divorce. The father owned and/or co-owned businesses that earned millions of dollars in revenue each year. The chancery court determined his monthly adjusted gross income to be $71,377.00. The mother worked for…
Read MoreFireoved v. Fireoved (Kansas 2019)
The application of the multi-family credit is discretionary. When calculating support, the costs of the child’s health insurance and reasonable costs of child care are added to the gross child support obligation. The district court has discretion to determine the reasonableness. The mother had primary residential custody of the parties’ child. She notified the father…
Read MoreIn re Makinna B. (Tennessee 2019)
A parent must provide evidence of the cost of work-related childcare in order to get credit for it in a child support calculation. The mother and father had one child, and the mother was the primary residential parent. A few months after entry of the initial order, the father filed for modification, requesting custody of…
Read MoreMSC v. MCG (Wyoming 2019)
The argument contained in a motion should support the requested relief. The father filed a “Motion for Relief from a Child Support Order.” He requested relief from an income withholding order, but the body of his motion asked the court to set aside the underlying support order. The father argued the Wyoming Child Support Guidelines…
Read MoreIn re Interest of Cayden R. (Nebraska 2019)
Having children in foster care is not a rebuttable presumption under the child support guidelines. A statute allows for minimum support in low income cases. A juvenile court support order required the mother to pay $50 per month child support while her five children were in foster care. Guideline support was $0, but the referee…
Read MoreGunter v. Gunter (Mississippi 2019)
Courts may depart from the child support guideline amount but must make specific findings to support the departure. The final decree of divorce in this case ordered the father to pay guideline child support, plus half of the children’s private school tuition, daycare expenses, and unreimbursed medical costs. The father appealed, arguing this was an…
Read MoreVandenbook v. Vandenbrook (Mississippi 2019)
If a parent’s adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000, the court must make findings to support applying the guidelines. The father appealed the award of child support in the final divorce decree. The father earned more than $100,000 annually through a combination of salary, bonuses, and the exercise of stock options. To determine his adjusted gross…
Read MorePettersen v. Pettersen (Mississippi 2018)
The court has discretion to set support for the time period before a divorce is filed. If support is set, it can only go back to one year before the filing of the action. The parents in this case filed for divorce. They had three children, two of whom were emancipated, and one who was…
Read MoreActual Earnings and Payment Outcomes Among Obligors with Imputed Income
Income imputation results in a financial support order, which is necessary to ensure that children receive support from both parents. But what are the payment outcomes in these situations? This report uses the sample of orders from Maryland’s 2011 to 2014 case-level guidelines review to assess outcomes of imputation on payment compliance. It compares obligors…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Dean (Kansas 2018)
Courts must follow the definition of income found in the guidelines. The mother appealed the district court’s calculation of the father’s gross income. The district court subtracted the amounts the father was paying towards mortgages from his gross monthly income. The Appellate Court reversed the decision. The definition of income is purposefully broad, and the…
Read MoreWoodard v. Woodard (Tennessee 2018)
Courts have authority to establish support for a special needs child who is over the age of majority at the time of a divorce as long as the child became disabled before reaching the age of majority. However, if the initial order did not address support, it cannot be established later. The mother appealed a…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Hou and Chu (Kansas 2018)
A court can deviate from the amount of presumptive support as long as findings support the reason for deviation. The divorce decree in this case ordered the father to pay child support, plus half of the children’s extracurricular activities. The father appealed, arguing that an amount for extracurricular activities was included in the guideline calculation.…
Read MoreSchurman v. Wilkins (Nebraska 2018)
Under the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines, child support abatements are discretionary. The father appealed the district court’s order that did not allow for an abatement in support during his summer parenting time. The appellate court found that the decision whether to abate is clearly left to the court. The district court considered evidence of the…
Read MoreAli v. Ali (Mississippi 2017)
When setting child support for a high-income parent, a strict application of the guidelines may not be reasonable. The court must make findings to support its decision. In this case, the chancery court found that applying the child support guidelines to an income greater than $100,000 was not reasonable and set child support based on…
Read MoreA Blueprint for Economic Security
This paper explores the intersections of the work-related experiences of men and fathers, child support enforcement policies and practices and support services for fathers with low-incomes. Consideration is given to the historical factors that are complicating efforts to end poverty. The Blueprint also proposes changes to child support enforcement efforts and support services for low-income…
Read MoreExpenditures on Children by Families 2015
Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided estimates of annual expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report presents the 2015 estimates for married-couple and single-parent families. Results are shown in tables 1-7 at the end of this report. Expenditures are provided by age of children, household income level,…
Read MorePatrick v. Patrick (Oklahoma 2016)
Child support may only be awarded for an adult disabled child if there is a causal relationship between the disability and the child’s inability to support him or herself. In this case, the mother could not be ordered to support an adult child who had entered treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. Assuming that substance…
Read MoreMosher v. Mosher (Mississippi 2016)
A child support issue must be properly raised in the lower court, or it is procedurally barred from appellate review. The lower court has an obligation to review all child support agreements to ensure the support amount is adequate and sufficient to support the child.
Read MoreThe Impact of Child Support Laws on the Measured Outcomes of Children
Published in the Journal of Legal Issues and Cases in Business Volume 3 – December, 2014, this article documents the results of research performed by the authors in which they tested the hypotheses that 1) children whose families have more money have better outcomes; and 2) states with harsher punishments for failure to pay child…
Read MoreLasu v. Issak (Nebraska 2015)
When a household has a combined monthly income below the poverty level, a minimum support order is appropriate.
Read MoreReview of the Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines
This is a link to a report prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, representing the federally mandated quadrennial review of Pennsylvania’s child support guidelines. It examines child support guidelines models, identifies similarities and differences between Pennsylvania’s guidelines approach and the approaches of other states, presents findings from the analysis of case file data…
Read MoreChild Support Models and the Perception of “Fairness”
This is a link to a research paper on the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) website that provides an overview of each of the three different models of child support guidelines – Income Shares, Melson, and Percentage of Income – and examines the perceptions of fairness of each model. In recent years, states have…
Read MoreState ex rel. Hermesmann v. Seyer (Kansas 1993)
The issue of consent to sexual activity under the criminal statutes is irrelevant in a civil action to determine paternity and for support of a minor child born of such activity.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Emerson (Kansas 1993)
Supplemental security income benefits being received by a minor child may not be considered in determining the presumptive child support due under the child support guidelines.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Beacham (Kansas 1994)
Child support worksheets approved by the court shall be filed in every case where an order of child support is entered after the effective date of the Kansas Child Support Guidelines.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Lewallen (Kansas 1995)
In determining child support obligations under the Kansas Child Support Guidelines, the taxable income shown in a tax return is not always a reliable indication of domestic gross income.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Patterson (Kansas 1996)
Although discretionary, the Kansas Child Support Guidelines extrapolation formula must be considered by the trial court when income exceeds the child support schedules. Child support worksheets approved by the court shall be filed in every case where an order of child support is entered.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Thurmond (Kansas 1998)
The Kansas Child Support Guidelines are the basis for establishing and reviewing child support orders in the district courts in Kansas. Judges and hearing officers must follow the guidelines. Child support obligations are calculated by completing the Child Support Worksheets.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Kasper (Kansas 2001)
In situations where parents have divided custody of two children, a child support worksheet must be completed for each child.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Burton (Kansas 2001)
The Kansas Child Support Guidelines are the basis for establishing and reviewing child support orders in Kansas.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Leoni (Kansas 2007)
When the combined income of the parties is in excess of the maximum contained in the Kansas Child Support Guidelines schedule, the “extended-income formula” may be utilized in calculating child support.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Branch (Kansas 2007)
The Kansas Child Support Guidelines do not address treatment of a lump sum employment severance payment in determining the amount of a parent’s child support obligation.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Vandervoort (Kansas 2008)
The Child Support Guidelines are the basis for establishing and reviewing child support orders in Kansas, including cases settled by agreement of the parties.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Winsky (Kansas 2009)
When a child reaches 18 years of age and is no longer in high school, a parent’s obligation for support of any remaining minor children should be recalculated under the Kansas Child Support Guidelines.
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