Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Subject

Support cannot be calculated unless we know the amount of time that the child spends with you. The child should be able to spend time with you in Idaho. The judge has jurisdiction to divide the costs of transportation for her trips to Idaho between the parents and it certainly is an issue when determining child support. I suggest that you retain a California attorney to file the proper motion, in particular a motion to set the child sharing schedule. In most counties your personal appearrance will not be required if you have an attorney, so it may be cheaper to retain an attorney than to file it without an attorney. In San Diego County, where I practice, almost all hearings are by declaration, and the state mandated mediation can be handled by telephone. Good Luck, Pat McCrary

Re: Subject

To answer, an attorney would first need to know which state has jurisdiction. Most if not all states have standard support guidelines--- complex formulas that give wieght to the amount of time the child is in the custody of each parent, the relative incomes of the parents, other child support obligations, etc. You and the child's mother both have a fundamental constitutional right to the custody of the child. This usually means "reasonable visitation" by the parent who is not providing the primiary residence. What is reasonable is determined based on individual circumstances. Costs of transportation are usually split, but not always, and not always 50/50. A very common method of splitting expenses is in proportion to income.