California Child Support Modification : Stipulation To Modify Child Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Child Support Modification : Stipulation To Modify Child Support

This article and video discusses child support modification in California. The topics covered are:

  1. What a stipulation of child support is
  2. What a modification of child support is
  3. Easiest way to modify child support
  4. Modifying Income Withholding Order
  5. Costs of Modifying child support via agreement
  6. How long the process of modifying child support takes

Below is the video and transcript.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, we’re talking about modifying child support and the easiest way of going about that.

I had a call yesterday, someone wanted me to run some numbers and by the way what we do is we take a look at the income of the parties, of the timeshare between the children and then punch in the income of the parties to determine what child support would look like and this is based on the court’s DissoMaster software, which we utilize.

So I got call and he said Tim I want to look at modifying the child support, we simply plugged in the information into the DissoMaster calculation and got the new number and it’s easy when the parties agree to modify child support and we talk to all of our clients about this, once we do have a current order, say the divorce is final, if they ever want to change the amount or see if the amount has changed.

I just need to know the income so I can run the report and see if it needs to be modified and the easiest way to modify it is through a stipulation.

A stipulation just means agreement and all I do is draft a 3 to 4 page written document that basically modifies the current order for support and indicates how much it will be, on what date it will be changed and for what children it’s in regards too.

It’s pretty straightforward, it takes me just a hour or so to prepare the document, there’s no court involved, there is just a 20 dollar court filing fee, to file it with the court and it usually takes a couple of weeks to get that filed and if you have an attached income withholding order to your child support.

We would also need to prepare either a termination order or an amended income withholding order so we can get both the stipulation signed by the judge as well as the income withholding order, changing the amount so we can get that to your employer if money is being taken out directly of your check, we can do that all simultaneously.

So, Tim Blankenship divorce661.com give me a call if you have any questions, need help with your divorce in California. Thanks so much for watching.

child support, spousal support

Modify Support For California Divorce? Run A Dissomaster First | Divorce661

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Modify Support For California Divorce? Run A Dissomaster First | Divorce661

I get a lot of calls where people want to modify child support or modify spousal support for their California divorce.

This is all fine and well, but the first thing you want to do is make sure it is going to end up in your favor.

What I have found is that people just assume that by filing a motion to modify child support or spousal support that they will receive more or less in support based upon their gut feeling. Maybe they found out their spouse is earning more now and assume they should get more in support.

There are several things you have to consider, and while I won’t get into everything, I will provide a few examples.

Let’s say you have been receiving support for a few years both in child support and spousal support. Let’s assume that you come to learn that your spouse is now earning more money and thus your rationale for requesting more support.

Now in many cases, this would be simple and the justification for the request for additional support is based on a change in circumstances, that being one of the parties is earning more income.

But some other factors you need to look at is how has your income changed. As it has been several years, has your income gone up as well? When you ask for more in child support, will you spouse take that opportunity to ask for more custody and thus also affect the amount of support you receive or pay?

These are just some of the additional things you need to look at in addition to just how much income each of you receive.

And as I stated in the video above, at least 50% of the time when we run the numbers we learn that support would go down (for those who wanted to raise it) and go up ( for those trying to lower it)

I am happy to spend a few minutes on the phone with you to go over your situation to see if it would make sense to file a motion to modify child support and / or spousal support.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Calculating Child Support With Multiple Children Schedules

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce in California, you are going to have to come up with some child support numbers if you have children.  The basic premise is that you use the court’s dissomaster software ( you won’t have access, but you will as our client) and punch in the income of the parties and the time share percentages.

It looks like this.

Dissomaster Example
Dissomaster Example

Generally it is pretty easy to figure out. You decide who has the kids what percentage of time and punch in the incomes of the parties and the the software spits out a number. The timeshare percentages are also usually pretty easy to figure out. It usually goes something like this;

There are 3 children and they are all with mom 80 percent of the time. Pretty strait forward.

But how about this scenario;

There are 3 kids and 2 of the kids spend 90% of the time with mom and 1 of the kids spends 20% of the time with mom.

So what is the average time share between the 3 kids?

This is the formula we used to make this determination.

3 kids

Mom
2 kids 90% of time = 180%
1 kid 20% = 20%

200% divided by 3 = 66.66 %

33.33 percent assigned to father as average time share percentage

What we did essentially is take the 2 kids with 90% and multiply that by 2 because there are 2 kids. Then the one kid, (1 x 20% = 20%) The total being 200% and then divided by the number of children to come up with the average time share.

I know this is not calculus, but i figured if one of our clients had a question on it then somebody else out there might as well.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Modifying Spousal Support Or Child Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We get a lot of calls from people who are already divorced who want to modify their spousal support or child support.  Usually the person who is paying wants to lower it and the person receiving wants to increase it.

What normally occurs is that there is a change in circumstances such as a change in income with the parties or with regards to child support, they may be changing the custodial timeshare which affects the child support amount.

Regardless of the reasons, the first thing we always do is run the numbers through the court’s dissomaster software to get a sense of whether or not it makes sense to go through with the modification.

Every once in a while, someone will call and i will run the numbers for them and we determine that if they filed the modification request that it would have actually turned out worse for them.  Sometimes is just does not make sense at that moment to file a modification and usually what we will do is tell them to wait until a certain event has happened and come up with a plan regarding the best time to file the modification.

If you have current orders in place it is always a good idea to have those handy so we can make an apples to apples comparison. We also will need to know what orders from what date we are modifying so the court knows which set of orders we are asking to change.

If you have any questions on whether or not it makes sense to file a modification for spousal support or child support, make sure to give us a call.  We can prepare your motion and declaration, file it with the court and get your court date for you.

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To Use Life Insurance To Protect Child Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To Use Life Insurance To Protect Child Support

We sit down with Jon Gardner owner of JSG Insurance Services and we discuss the issue of child support and how to utilize life insurance to protect the child support that you receive.

We recorded several videos (and audio podcast) to discuss several things to consider when getting a divorce in Santa Clarita related to life insurance.

Listen to this audio podcast with Tim Blankenship and Jon Gardner.

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To Use Life Insurance To Protect Child Support

Back to Santa Clarita Divorce And Insurance Issues

Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Santa Clarita. Our full service Santa Clarita Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Santa Clarita divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss the mistakes that people make in regards to taxes as it is related to child support and spousal support. For instance, do you know which one you have to report as income and is tax deductible?  There are different ruled for both Child Support and Child Support.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Santa Clarita. Our full service Santa Clarita Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Santa Clarita divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss the mistakes that people make in regards to taxes as it is related to child support and spousal support. For instance, do you know which one you have to report as income and is tax deductible? There are different ruled for both Child Support and Child Support.

Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce and serving Santa Clarita. Our full service Santa Clarita Divorce paralegal service takes care of your entire divorce from start to finish. Our Santa Clarita divorce paralegal service is flat-fee based so you don’t have to worry about hourly fees and high costs.

In this video we discuss the mistakes that people make in regards to taxes as it is related to child support and spousal support. For instance, do you know which one you have to report as income and is tax deductible?  There are different ruled for both Child Support and Child Support.

Watch the short video below to learn more about Santa Clarita Divorce Child & Spousal Support Tax Mistakes

011: Should You Get Life Insurance As Part Of Your Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In this episode, we discuss when you may want to include an agreement in your divorce that a life insurance policy be taken out.

Life insurance could be an integral part of your divorce agreement and I had a great discussion with a life insurance agent.

Make sure to listen to this episode where we discuss in more detail things you should consider when going through a divorce in California to protect the ones you love.

Do You Need Child Support Or Spousal Support Orders?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are a full service divorce company that prepares, files and serves your divorce documents.  This includes assisting you with child support and spousal support orders. We can prepare your motion or assist you in filing a Response if you have been served. We can help you during your divorce or even after your divorce (Post Judgment).

How Spousal / Child Support works when you are getting divorced

If you are  going through a divorce, you can file a motion with the court and ask for spousal support or child support or both. At any time, while going through the divorce process, you can file a motion with the court.  These motions are called Request For Orders.  When you file a motion for child support or spousal support, a court date will be set.  The orders that are made at the hearing will give you temporary orders until time of the final judgment in the divorce case.

How Spousal Support / Child Support works after you have divorced

Any thing done after your divorce has been finalized in called “Post Judgment” which simply means “after the judgment”. When you file a motion to modify spousal support or child support there normally has to be some “change in circumstances” for the court to order a modification of support.  Normally if one of the parties loses a job or is now making more money is justification to request a modification of support. It is best to call our office so we can discuss if a modification is appropriate.

If you were served with a Request for Order for support

If you were served a motion or request for order, you can file a Response.  A Response is your opportunity to tell the judge your side of the story. Their are specific rules on filing a Response related to filing, service and due dates.  Don’t wait too long before calling us as it does take a few days to prepare your declaration and file them with the court.

Terminating Child Support In LA County | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Terminating Child Support In LA County | Santa Clarita Divorce

Today I wanted to talk to you about how to terminate a child support order.   I had a call over the weekend from a gentleman who needed to terminate child support so he didn’t have any overpayment of chils support when his child turned 18.

So let’s discuss how you go about getting the court to sign a termination of child support order.  To get the court to sign a termination of child support order you have to do one of a few things. The form you’re going to use his FL – 195 income withholding order.  At the top of the withholding order you will notice that there is a termination of child support box at the top.  That’s the box you will use to terminate child support.  This is the same form that was used when child support was ordered and will be the same form you use to submit to the court to get the judge to sign to terminate child support as well.

Here’s what we recommend you do.  Because the income withholding order will need to be signed by the judge you’ll either need to get a hearing date set so you can go into court to have the judge sign the order or you can attempt to mail a letter to the clerk with the evidence of a birth certificate the judgment and perhaps even a diploma of the child to show he is 18 in order to get them to sign the judgment.

In you want to send a letter to the clerk, what you need to do is to mail a letter to the actual department your case is in, instead of just mailing to the Court.  What you would do then is mail letter to the clerk explaining the circumstances along with a copy of the judgment that shows the order regarding when child support can be terminated.  Then you can attach a copy of your child’s birth certificates so they can determine that your child is in fact 18 and a copy of the high school diploma if it was part of the judgment agreement.

If that does not work, the last thing you can do is file a request for order with the court.  You can file a motion with the court indicating you would like the termination of child support order signed and go to the hearing date  and explain the circumstances to the judge and hope that he signs the termination of child support at the hearing itself.

If you have any more questions about how to terminate a child support order or need assistance in doing so please give us a call if you happy to help you.