Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

Re: New spouses rights in child support cases

Some attorneys have interpreted the support guidelines as allowing them to investigate the total family circumstances of a parent when support is being modified. The theory is that in some cases a non-working parent is not working because a new spouse makes so much he or she does not have to; in other cases, they are looking for a reason to impute additional income to the parent due to he or she not having to work full time or overtime or even get a part time job to support his or her lifestyle. Part of the philosophy of the law is that a child should have the same lifestyle after a divorce as he would have had, had the parents remained married. This is an almost impossible goal to reach, but when the custodial parent is scraping by and the non-custodial parent has a new home and a new car, it's a logical extension. And the new spouse's income and assets can be considered in determining whether to award attorney fees. Bite the bullet and give them your income.