Legal Question in Family Law in California
my husband is paying 400.00 a month in child support. 2 counties are collecting only $50.00 a month but 1 county is collecting 300.00 a month. he is the sole provider for our family of 5 and brings home 2240.00 a month. can the county that is collecting 300.00 take that much from him?
3 Answers from Attorneys
The question requires much more information than what was provided. I am assuming these amounts collected by the counties are for child support payments. Calculating the correct support requires an analysis of the parents incomes,timeshare and the financial impact of other minor dependents in your household. It could be your husband is overpaying support at the current level. Best to meet with an attorney to assess this situation.
They can collectively take whatever amount is in the child support orders, up to 50% of his take-home pay. That is the limit. If the three orders say he owes $50+$50+$300, then $400 out of a take home of $2240 is perfectly legal. If he thinks he is paying too much support, he has to go in and ask for a modification of the support order or orders that he thinks are wrong. There may be many reasons, however, why the difference would be correct. If he has three counties chasing him for support, he must have three separate support cases open. That means the support calculations are different for each child, because they are based on the custody order for each child and the income differential between him and each of the mothers separately. It is also possible that he ran up arrears in one county, which would have him paying the arrears plus interest on top of the current support obligation.