Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: Modification of child support

There will be disagreement with my opinion, but my answer is "yes." Not all judges go this way -- but not all judges go against this, either.

I have said many, many times that the spouse of a child is not obligated to support another person's child. The step-parent's income, as demonstrated at trial, takes no part in determining the income of his or her spouse at trial.

However, your question relates to -discovery-, and discovery is a pre-trial issue. I argue strongly that the step-parent's financials are -discoverable-, because the step-parent is the most convenient person to aid the parent in hiding income and income-producing assets.

If you are not helping the parent do so, great. If you ARE helping the parent do so, you are helping her to avoid her contribution to child support, and a determination of what is FAIR AND EQUITABLE child support.

With the new Child Support Guidelines, this may be less so. I now often find that changing the custodial parent's income does not significantly change the non-custodial obligation. An upward adjustment for the custodial parent seems to primarily increase the custodial parent's obligation, under the current Guidelines. The non-custodial parent's obligation seems to stay in the same general range, more often or not.

However, if the custodial parent's real income puts the case -out- of the Guidelines calculation range, or the child is over 18 and out of high school, the judge has discretion. Hiding income through your name is harming the non-custodial parent. The judge also has discretion in other cases -- if, for example, YOU are the trustee of a million-dollar trust for the child, that fact should be disclosed.

I am not suggesting that YOU are dishonest. I am, however, pointing out that such dishonesty exists, and the non-custodial parent has a right to find and present evidence of dishonesty. Discovery is used to seek out the truth of the case, including both admissible evidence and facts which may lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

You have the right to seek a protective order for yourself, or your spouse's lawyer can object. However, if you have nothing to hide, there is a middle ground -- agree to produce IF there is a protective order prohibiting disclosure or use outside the litigation.

Re: Modification of child support

Attorney Lee's response is very accurate. You are required to disclose the financial information. However, the step parents income is irrelevant to the issue of support. Moreover, I know of no court that would not require a parent to pay child support.

Assuming your wife was never married to the father, the father should not be entitled to attorney's fees. I would recommend strongly that you obtain legal counsel if you do not have it at this time.