Legal Question in Family Law in Missouri

Re: child support

As you may know, the Missouri Supreme Court has provided Form 14 for the calculation of child support. You can find this form on line. However, I would warn you against relying upon doing the calculation yourself. Even experienced attorneys often have difficulty calculating child support accurately. There are many pages of "guidelines", also available on line in the Missouri Rules of Civil Procedure. Many of the facts you need to know in order to follow these guidelines and complete the form 14 properly should be discussed with an attorney, and all too often some of the required facts are simply unknown. Generally speaking, if a proper calculation of the child support figure results in a change of 20% of more from the existing order then you would have a legal presumption that the existing figure should be modified. With all due respect, I would advise you to consult with legal counsel about this issue.