Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

Custody and child support are two entirely different things. Both parents have custody of the child. Custody does not have to be established by the court if both parents are agreeable. However, if you want to see the child and the mother has the child and interferes with your custody/visitation, then you need to file a custody/visitation action.

Legal custody refers to things like school records. Legal custody is almost always joint. Physical custody refers to where the child lives on a daily basis - who fees the child, gets her ready for school and so forth. Physical custody is almost always primary in one parent with visitation or partial custody granted to the other parent. Whether you will get the child as much as you would like depends on how cooperative the mother will be with that. Custody/visitation battles can get very expensive very quickly if the mother decides that to use the child as a weapon against you or to deny you visitation.

Child support in most cases is determined by the parents combined gross monthly income set forth in guidelines. See the commentary to Rule 1910.16-1 which says:

E. Shared Custody. In creating the new schedule, the amounts of basic child support were first increased to reflect updated economic data, including 2008 price levels. Next, the amounts of basic child support were adjusted to incorporate into the schedule the assumption that the children spend 30% of the time with the obligor and that the obligor makes direct expenditures on their behalf during that time. That does not mean that the entire schedule was reduced by 30%. Only those variable expenditures, such as food and entertainment, that fluctuate based upon parenting time were adjusted.

The calculation in Rule 1910.16-4(c) reduces an obligor�s support obligation further if the obligor spends significantly more time with the children. The revised schedule assumes that the obligor has 30% parenting time. The obligor will receive an additional 10% reduction in the amount of support owed at 40% parenting time, increasing incrementally to a 20% reduction at 50% parenting time. This method may still result in a support obligation even if custody of the children is equally shared. In those cases, the rule provides for a maximum obligation which may reduce the obligation so that the obligee does not receive a larger portion of the parties� combined income than the obligor.

So yes, if you succeed in spending more time with your child, your child support can be reduced. However, it depends. Courts do not like to deviate too much from the child support guidelines absent a really good reason.

To best maximize your visitation and reduce your child support, I recommend that you seek out a family law attorney in your area.

The goal of a custody order should be to build a relationship with your child. Using additional custody time to reduce child support just doesn't work out financially.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. The initial consultation is free.

{John}