Legal Question in Family Law in California

I make pretty good money and capable of providing for my son on my own. However, I also believe that his father needs to share this responsibility. I recently ended a 14 year relationship with the father. We were never married. He has been unemployed for the last 6 months. Prior to this, he held a good paying job and always had investments and savings. Recently he tells me he cannot afford my sons school any longer and that he may be out of a job for another year. This along with many factors lead to our split. He says that he can only give me $120/month and that he decided not to take my money based on income. Is it worth it for me to take this guy to court or should I ride this train wreck, wait until he gets a job and take him to court? I am afraid that he will try to make me pay him child support eventhough he may only have him at the most 20%. I don't need his money for me. I make my own money. Its for his kid and $4/day is just pathetic. What do you think?


Asked on 7/31/14, 10:58 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

If he has 20% custodial time and is unemployed, he is almost certainly legally entitled to child support from you, unless and until he gets a job or you can prove to the court through an expert witness evaluation that he is capable of earning more than he does, i.e. it is his fault, not the realities of the market for his skills, that are the cause of his unemployment. In that case you might be able to convince a court to impute income to him. Generally, however, in the case of someone who has lost a job, the court will order specific find work efforts rather than imputing income that the person is not actually earning, and as long as the person is following the find work order the child support will be set based on the actual income (unemployment or whatever other sources, or zero). The child support is then revisited and revised once the person finds a job.

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Answered on 7/31/14, 11:45 am


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