Hi,
I remarried several years ago and my wife and I just had our first child together. She was eating for two well before the birth of our daughter and now that our daughter has been born we are realizing that we could be conceivably paying over 1400 a month when dependent care is factored in. Since my first wife and I divorced over five years ago my child support has never been changed and I have never missed a payment. What I am wondering is how will the birth of my daughter affect my child support to my first wife? In the five years since we divorced she moved 1 1/2 hours away and even if I wanted to i cannot spend additional time with him because of the distance involved to see him (no fault of my own). In addition, my first wife was going to school full-time but I believe has now graduated but I have no clue as to her current income or if she is even working full-time (she was imputed income in my permanent order for child support).
My question is can my child support be reduced due to the birth of my new baby girl? If so, how do I compute it? My wife plans on continuing to work so do we factor in my second wife’s income into whatever calculation is required? How do we calculate it using the rosen.com child support calculator? Can any reduction be computed on the expenses that were incurred before the birth? Would this be worth pursuing with a lawyer to get reduced? My son from my first marriage is now 9 years old.
Thank you.
It sounds like you need to file a motion to modify based on a change in circumstanes. The birth of your new child alone is not sufficient to justify a recalculation, but combined with the length of time since the order was entered and the fact that the other party is now employed, there is a good chance you would have a lower order. You can run the figures on our calculator to get an idea of what you would have to pay, but you need to file the motion to get her income information for the calculator.
Current children are factored into your child support obligation for children from previous relationships however as Kathleen said, it alone can’t be used as a reason for an adjustment. However, based on everything else going on with your previous children it sounds like you have other reasons to modify.
Thanks Kathleen and Endoftheline for your replies.
As a follow-up, how do I compute the income for my ex if she was imputed income during the first child support agreement? Do I start from scratch using only her new current income? Do I take her new income and add it to the income she was imputed from our first agreement? Or if the income from her current employer is less than the imputed income do I continue to use the imputed income? Can you also provide some perspective into how the court would handle the number of nights that I have my son from my first marriage given the fact that it is not possible for him to spend additional time with me (visitation) because of my ex moving 1 1/2 hours away. Currently I have him every other weekend but again it would be more if she lived in the same city as I could at least have him on some week days or even longer weekends.
The court should use the current income, but if the imputed income is higher and you can show bad faith, the court could use the imputed income.
The court will use the number of overnights that is actually reflected in the current schedule.