Legal Counsel You Can Rely On

Child support can be a stressful and contentious topic for parents. Whether you’ve recently separated and desperately need money to support your child or you’re trying to enforce a child support order against a parent who won’t pay up, you’ve come to the right place. You may disagree with the way your spouse is spending child support and want to know if his or her actions are legal. Maybe you feel a modification of child support is necessary due to a change in financial situation, but don’t know where to start.

If you haven’t applied for child support yet, there are important first steps to take to take. You could make a child support agreement with your co-parent outside the court setting, such as through mediation or informal negotiations. You could also obtain a child support order from a court. Either way, you need to know where the other parent is, establish legal fatherhood or paternity, and determine the appropriate amount for child support using California guidelines.

If you have a child who is primarily housed at another parent’s home, you are most likely going to owe that person child support. Even if you don’t get along with your child’s other parent, these payments are to help raise your child. Ignoring an order to pay child support can lead to serious consequences, so knowing how much to pay and how to submit it to the other parent is important.

Over time, people’s financial situations often change, sometimes for the better, but unfortunately, not always. If you can’t afford the child support you’re ordered to pay, it may be time for a modification. The same income worksheets used to initially determine the appropriate amount of support may need to be resubmitted with updated information.

What happens if you don’t pay your court ordered child support? Trying to avoid child support by being paid under the table can hurt you in the long run. Depending on where you live, the courts have a number of tools at their disposal for enforcing child support orders, including garnishing your wages, seizing your property, and revoking your driver’s license. You may also be unable to obtain a U.S. passport.

Obtaining and modifying child support typically aren’t easy tasks. Hiring an experienced family law attorney can relieve some of the stress of obtaining, modifying, or enforcing a child support order.