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Child SupportFamily Law Blog

Why a Child Support Order is Necessary in San Diego

By July 11, 2014May 11th, 2016No Comments4 min read

Understanding the Importance of Arranging Child Support in San Diego

Child support refers to a parent’s financial support of a child’s everyday living costs, including the consideration of necessities such as clothes, food, and a secure home environment. Although child support is not the only way a parent can contribute to the development of their child, it is particularly important for many reasons.

Although you may be in an uncomfortable situation with the other parent responsible for the child at this time and feel as though you cannot discuss the issue of child support, it is important to recognize that child support can make a real difference to children, not only providing them with the clothing, food, and essentials they need, but also providing a steady foundation for both parents to remain intimately involved within their child’s life.

How to Properly Arrange Child Support in San Diego

Whatever route you take when it comes to caring for and supporting your child through the complicated process of a divorce or separation, it is important to remember the child support that you put in place will help to give them the very best start in life, as well as keeping them secure throughout the journey to adulthood. Child support payments are a legal responsibility, and most of the time, a large majority of separated parents quickly come to an agreement about the costs required to care for their children.

However, making arrangements after a separation can be troublesome, and you may find that you need help from an experienced  family law attorney when it comes to working out the fine details. This is certainly the case if you do not trust your ex and if there are communication problems between the two of you.  Since child support is based on the amount of time you spent with your child and the amount of income made, if there is a lack of trust it can make the process more complicated.  You want to make sure that each person is properly reporting all sources of income, this may involve issuing discovery to look into the finances of each person.

A large percentage of families decide to construct an arrangement between themselves, agreeing formally with the other parent about the type, and how much child support that one will provide to the other. In legal terms, an agreement such as this is called a child support stipulation, however if you find that you cannot agree or that there is excess difficulty coming to terms, there are other ways to arrange child support.

The Options for Arranging Child Support in San Diego

One option for parents unable to come to an agreement about child support arrangements is by seeking the assistance of Department of Child Support  Services or DCSS. DCSS is a service the government runs to arrange support on your behalf, however they will only assist the custodial parent who is the payee or the receiver of support. DCSS will analyze the figures and make a decision on how much the paying parent (non-custodial parent) should pay to the receiving parent (custodial-parent ). This amount is calculated using a standard formula which allows the service to work out an enforceable amount then collect payments from the paying parent to be passed onto the receiving parent.  It is always helpful to have DCSS involved with the enforcement issues because they can monitor whether payments are received or not and also apply interest to any arrears.

The other option would be to hire an experienced family law attorney to assist you with calculating support.  An attorney will be able to examine all the factors used to calculate guideline child support and make sure that all income is factored in properly.  There are different types of income and they will need to be applied differently. For example, if one party is in the military and receives BAH, this is a non taxable income that needs to be calculated as non taxable.   An experienced family law attorney can assist you with this calculation and analysis of income.

Do I Need An Order, Can’t I Just Come to a Verbal Agreement?

If you and your partner are co-parenting and have an agreement between you for child support, you must get it made into an order of the court!  If there is no child support order, there is no obligation.  If a payment is missed, there is no one to enforce this payment unless it has been made into an order of the court.  If there is no obligation than there is no need to pay.  It is important to protect your child and yourself by having any agreements memorialized into a court order.  An experienced family law attorney can assist you with preparing a stipulation to send to court.

 Minella Law Group Can Help!

 Whether you need to obtain a child support order, have an existing order modified, or enforce an order, it is best to speak with an experienced San Diego family law attorney at Minella Law Group. Your attorney will work to make sure that the court considers all factors that are in your favor when making its decision.  Please call (619) 289-7948 to schedule a consultation.

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