Legal Question in Family Law in California

Received final divorce pperwork, everything is good except according to the judgement I am to pay child support even though I got custody. When I called the office the lady told me it's my fault for signing the paper? What can I do to fix this? Can I go after my lawyer? Her office manager is extremely rude.


Asked on 3/12/13, 1:06 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Did you get sole physical custody with no visitation? Unless you did, it's not necessarily a mistake that you are paying support. The basic way support is calculated (although it's way more complex when you look at the details) is as follows: You take each party's gross income, and then make deductions for various statutory things. That leaves "spendable" income. A percentage of spendable income from each parent is allocated to supporting the child(ren). Then that is divided by the percentage of time the children spend with each parent. So if custody is 50/50 but one parent makes more - that parent will pay support. Even if a parent has more custodial time, if they make enough more money they still pay support. So even if you have, say 80% custody, if you have four times as much "spendable"income as that is defined by the Family Code, you would pay support. These calculations are run on court authorized software, usually Dissomaster (R). So unless the income and deductions information, or the custodial time information, that was input into the program was wrong, the support calculation would be legally correct. If you think there was an error in the inputs, then you need to demand your attorney file a motion to modify the support order using the correct data. Child support is not fixed for life. It can be changed based on mistake, or later based on changed circumstances. It also changes any time the custody percentages change.

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Answered on 3/12/13, 1:32 pm
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

I agree with Mr. McCormick. There's a lot to your question that you do not tell us. There is a difference between legal custody and physical custody, and the time sharing plan between the parents has an effect on the dissomaster calculation. Additionally, it is not clear at all from the post what you signed and agreed to.

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Answered on 3/12/13, 5:48 pm


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