Orlando Child Support Attorney
Child Support Lawyer, Orlando, Florida
The amount of child support varies in each case depending on the income of the parties and the needs of the child taking into consideration the amounts set forth in the Florida Child Support guidelines which are presumptively correct. The Court may deviate from this amount plus or minus five percent (5%) without giving any written reason. The Court may deviate from the guidelines more than five percent (5%) upon specific findings on the record explaining why ordering the payment pursuant to the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate. The Court may adjust the minimum child support based on the following considerations, extraordinary medical, psychological, educational or dental expenses, independent income of the child (e.g. where an older child is working and has independent income), the payment of spousal support in addition to child support, seasonal variations in one or both parents’ income or expenses, the age of the child, taking into account the greater needs of older children, special needs that have traditionally been met within the family budget, the particular shared parenting arrangement such as when a child spends a substantial amount of time with the secondary residential parent, total available assets of the parties and the child, impact of the Internal Revenue Service dependency exemption and child tax credit and any other adjustment necessary to achieve an equitable result.
Various changes are going into effect for the child support statutes. On October 1, 2010, Florida Statute 61.13 will be changed to require that all child support orders entered after that date for support related to multiple children must include a schedule that adjusts the child support as each child ages out. After January 1, 2011, Florida Statute 61.30 will change. If a parent is not working, a court must impute income to the non-working parent if the court finds the unemployment to be voluntary and that the non-working parent is mentally and physically capable of working. The child support guidelines were modified to remove the lowest three monthly combined incomes. Employment-related child care costs, after January 1, 2011, will not be reduced by 25% in the child support calculation. Finally, the substantial time sharing calculation will be used for any time sharing arrangement over 20% of the overnights in a year, instead of the 40% threshold. The changes to these statutes are not applied retroactively, because they are substantive in nature.
Child support is generally paid through the Florida State Dispersement Unit and generally pursuant to an Income Deduction Order where the monies are deducted automatically by the payor spouse’s employer.
Your attorney will discuss this area with you and attempt to give you an estimate of what child support would be in your case.