About Preparing A Divorce Motion For Child Support

I have a new client that needs to file a motion for child support.   I help people prepare motions for child support and other orders such as Spousal Support all the time.  Aside from helping people complete the divorce process, this is probably the 2nd biggest thing I do.  In fact, in many cases we are filing for divorce and filing a motion for support at the same time.

When I am working with clients to prepare a motion, I usually tell them to write me a story about what the circumstances are.  If you are just filing for support, this can be as simple as stating the facts.

When it comes to child support, the amount of money you will pay or be paid depends upon how much time you have with the children and how much money each of the parties make.  There are child support calculators you can use to estimate what this figure may be.

I am currently working on a Post Judgment Child Support Motion (Request For Order).  Post Judgment simply means you have already been divorced and are asking for a modification of the orders in the Judgment.

In these Post Judgment child support motions, the issue generally is that the spouse with visitation has not complied with the amount of time share indicated in the divorce judgment.  So while the spouse paying child support is based on their income and the amount of time they spend with the children, what happens when they stop visiting as much as they said they would in the divorce judgment?

This is the reason for the current Child Support motion.  The father was supposed to have a certain amount of visitation time with the children.  But for several years, the father has not visited even half as much as he is supposed to per the divorce judgment.

What happens is that the children’s mom has the children much more than the judgement indicates.  Not that she is complaining about having more time, but it becomes unfair that the father gets to pay child support on a timeshare of say 50% when his actual visitation is only 20%.

If all things remain equal, meaning that the father’s and mother’s income remain the same, if we modify the amount of timeshare to 20% then the amount of support the father should have to pay should go up.  I say should because it is always up to a judge to decide.  But normally they use whats called “Guideline” support.

When you are trying to modify a previous order, just understand that there has to be some “Change in Circumstances” from the last time the order was made.  For instance, in the case described above, the change in circumstances could be that the father visits only 20% of the time now instead of the 50% he is supposed to.

If you need help filing a motion for child support or any other type of motion, I can help.  We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We provide a 100% online divorce solutions headquartered in Santa Clarita, California and can help you anywhere in Los Angeles County.