Child Support Modification

I’ve always heard that child support can’t be reviewed for three years unless there is a 15% shift in one party’s income. Our child support order is the result of a self-mediated agreement which we submitted to the court so the judge could sign it into order. My son’s father has now filed for modification but his income has not gone down. One of his claims is that his expenses have gone up. Will the judge hear the motion at all since it has only been 16 months since the order was signed? And if he does hear the motion, will special considerations be made by the judge since ex moved to another state and claims his living expenses are higher?

A party must claim a substantial change in circumstances to ask for a modification, and I do not believe an increase in expenses is enough unless it deals with travel expenses for visitation. Since child support is based on income, his expenses will not be taken into consideration. If he has to travel for visitation, the judge may choose to include these expenses as an extrordinary expense when determining the obligations of the parties.