Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: shared custody and amount of child support

There is two aspects: Joint physical and joint legal custody. What you laid out seems to be more like visitation and your wife will most likely be entitled to the guidelines and other considerations will also apply: if you are covering the health insurance for the family you will get 50% credit. Both income will be taken into account. However, the custodial parents income of over 20,000 is taken into account. For example, if they make 30,000 per year only 10,000 is considered to offset your child support obligation. There are other off-setts such as, if you pay for daycare, etc.

You can try and calculate your obligation to child support online, but in order to get a more accurate calculation, you may want to atleast consult with a family law attorney.

Good luck! Sincerely, Maria Murber

Re: shared custody and amount of child support

To reach your goal you need the court order to state that it is shared physical custody, not only shared legal custody. Then you are a step closed to reducing or eliminating child support. You can go on the DOR web site and calculate your potential child support before you agree to anything.

If you have any questions, contact me.