Child Support Modification

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

I am a divorced Dad with kids that live with their mother. I have the kids every other weekend and pay alimony and child support monthly without fail. The facts are these:

  1. My monthly alimony payment has recently stepped down by 14% as per our orginal legal judgement.
  2. My ex-wife now has a job but did not at the time of our settlement.
  3. I make roughly the same amount as i did at the time of our settlement.
  4. I have recently re-married.
  5. My ex-wife is now threatening to take me to court to have the child support payment increased. I believe the motivation to be the recent alimony reduction.

My questions are:

  1. Is there anything to justify her desire to seek modification (i.e. more) of child support?
  2. Can my new wife’s income be included as part of the calculation or judge’s decision in awarding child support?

thanks!

2

I’m sure Erin will respond, but my understanding is:

She can’t just decide all of a sudden to modify support AND stipulate what that amount is.

CS can only be modified everything 3 years and there must be a 15% difference (substantial change in circumstance) in income. As for the amount, the judge will determine the amount which is based off your income AND her income (so YES, her new income counts).

You can run the child support calculator on this site if you want to see the approximate amount it should be.

3

Thanks End…
I think you mean that the ex-wife’s (the children’s mother) income counts in the calculation. My question is can the ex-wife rope in the income of me and my NEW wife together in the support calc?

4

No, not unless you are earning more money, your new wife’s income has nothing to do with your child support calculation.

5

Thanks Erin.

So she cannot seek modification within 3 years no matter what…right?

6

She can try and seek a modification prior to the passage of three years, but the court should deny and dismiss the same.