Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: Minnesota Child Support New Law - Question

Thank you for your question. The new child support law has raised an enormous number of questions, such as yours.

As you may have discovered, the new law will only be applied to your case (at least at this time, and only on a motion to modify child support) if one of the following conditions applies:

1Your (I'm assuming you are the obligor)gross income changes by at least 20 percent

2There is a change in the number of joint children for which you are legally responsible for and are supporting

3.A parent or other caregiver of the child who is supported by the existing support order begins to receive public assistance -- although this may not help you

4. The other party has additional work-related or education-related child care expenses, or a substantial increase or decrease in existing work-related or education-related child care expenses -- although again, this may not benefit you, if you are the obligor

5.There is a change in the availability of health care coverage, or a change in cost

6. The child supported by the existing child support order becomes disabled

7. You and the othe party agree to a modification of the existing order in compliance with the new income shares guidelines

Esstially, if you do not meet the threshhold for a modification of child support, you cannot simply have the new law applied to your case. Moreover, if you have fairly modest visitation, the new guidelines will not necessarily mean a reduction in child support. In fact, I recently had a case where child support went up, rather than down.

Good luck.