Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Reimbursement of medical

The first thing that comes to mind is this: Your original decree provided that Mom is primary

custodian of two children, and Dad is the parent obligated to pay support for two children. I assume from your post that neither parent moved the court to modify the parenting arrangement or

the support obligation. If that is true and you do not have an order modifying support, then the last parenting/support order in existence governs -- even if that is not the real-life situation now. If you do have an order modifying, you can move the court to enforce that order.

But apparently you and Dad have an oral agreement

that you did not file with the court, and that oral agreement went awry. In that case, the court's order applies: technically, son still

lives with Mom and Dad is still ordered to pay support for son.

However, in real life, I believe the court might (might, not will) find that for all intents and

purposes (1) Mom and Dad modified the parenting order when, with Mom�s permission,

son moved in with Dad and (2) Mom and Dad modified the child support order when Dad began

paying son�s support by actually supporting son.

Dad�s obligation to Daughter does not change, but the amount of his obligation is always subject

to modification as long as the child qualifies for support.

Even though each parent has one of the children, the disparity in your incomes might result in

one parent paying support to the other. It might also result in the parent with less income paying

less than 1/2 of that parent�s nonresidential child�s medicals, while the parent with more income

might pay more than 1/2 of that parent�s nonresidential child�s medicals. You might want to

recalculate support and file a motion to amend the parenting arrangement and to modify support

based on the current parenting arrangement and the parents� incomes. You can also ask Child

Support Enforcement Division to recalculate.