Legal Question in Family Law in California
I am filling out paperwork for a child support modification. (due to a lay off). I wanted to know if I can claim my daughter as a hardship? She is the child that the order is for.
*if I do get an answer to this, can you please provide me with a link or family code section so that I can research this in more detail? thanks!
2 Answers from Attorneys
You are not going to find any research materials on the subject because your question is nonsense in the context of child support law. A child support hardship, by definition, is an extra expense that you claim should allow you to be allocated less support obligation for the child in question. It makes absolutely no sense for the child who is the supported child to be a hardship to reduce the support owed for the supported child. Law is made by the legislature and by appeals judges deciding cases that lawyers present for decision which then become precedents for future cases. The legislature would certainly not make such a nonsense law, and no lawyer would be crazy enough to argue such a theory even to a trial judge, much less take it up on appeal. So you will find nothing in the law regarding this nonsense theory of taking the supported child as a hardship in the case for her own support.
I agree with Mr. McCormick. Hardship deductions have been allowed for other children, but not the child that is the subject of the order.