Revised child support: is it possible?

[dthrom]

Two things to consider before going back to court on child support. You may have had a pay increase since the prior worksheet was run. A new worksheet would be run based on current information concerning your income and the other parent’s income, health care expenses and any child care expenses related to working. In any event, you could seek a modification where there has been a significant change in circumstances since the previous order. The changes to be considered are those occurring since the entry of the last child support order.

Since your agreement was from 2003, it is important to note that the guidelines provide a presumptive substantial change in circumstances when the existing order is at least three years old and there is a 15% deviation from the amount awarded under the existing order and the amount that would be awarded under the current guidelines.

In terms of requesting a modification to the current custody arrangement, this is a separate issue. You could seek a modification of your custody decree. You would be required to prove a difference between the current circumstances and the circumstances that existed at the time of the previous order. Time alone may be relevant on whether there has been a change of circumstances. Remember, decisions about custody always are made based on the best interests of the children given the circumstances. A child support dispute would not be helpful for this issue.

Deborah M. Throm
Rosen Law Firm
1829 E. Franklin Street, Bldg. 600
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919.265.0017 direct
919.321.0780 main voice
www.rosen.com
Email: dthrom@rosen.com

4101 Lake Boone Trail
Suite 500
Raleigh, NC 27607
919.256.1544 direct
919.787.6668 main voice

301 McCullough Drive
Suite 510
Charlotte, NC 28262
704.644.2531 ext. 100

[Nmiller1]

My separation agreement was dated Jun 03, and it shows that I have officially 38% overnights with my kids, because during the school year they go to there Mom’s on Tuesday nights, but in the summer they spend those extra Tue nights with me. My question is, since I have them in the morning on Tue, take them to school, pick them up and have them till around 8 pm, I do all the homework, feed them all meals etc, but do not get support credit for Tuesday since they technically do not sleep over at my house. This results in about $4800 per year in additional support over what the number would be if I just had them that extra few hours as an overnight on Tuesdays on the school year. Although I agreed to this support arrangement and use that as the calculation for total support dollars, I feel at this point it is not fair since I incur all the daily cost for them on these days. It I petitioned to go back to court, would a judge review it and based on experience, is there any chance a judge would take that into consideration and use Tuesdays into the total amount of days used for support purposes? If so what would my odds be of winning? Also if it would not be considered, what would be the odds of having the custody arrangement changed to have them all Tuesdays and make it closer to 50/50 custody? I am a very active father with a proven track record of involvement in all aspects of their life and for all practical purposes they live with me 50% of the time, the 38% is strictly due to the lack of the last 4 hours in the day on Tuesday nights? Should I seek legal recourse or would I be chasing my tail due to the agreement that is in place?