Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

What it sounds like is that dad has experienced a significant change in circumstances in financial income. You can file a motion to modify child support where there has been a significant change in circumstances in financial income in either parents� income. Thus, for your side you simply need some income information from the dad. Because you have a reasonable basis to �assume� that he has had a significant change of income you should consider filing your motion sooner rather than later.

You should have a paragraph in your 2002 divorce decree (or child support order) that looks something like the following:

"The parties, upon written request on an annual basis, shall exchange the financial information required by �40-4-11.4 NMSA 1978, which shall include:

a. Federal and state tax returns including all schedules for the year preceding the request;

b. W-2(s) statements for the year preceding the request;

c. Internal Revenue Service Form 1099s for the year preceding the request;

d. Work-related daycare statements for the year preceding the request;

e. Dependent medical and dental insurance premiums for the year preceding the request;

f. Wage and payroll statements for the four months preceding the request.

g. The wages of a subsequent spouse may be omitted from the financial information provided by either party."

As you can see - the first part of that paragraph identifies the law that is applicable to your question; thereafter, it says you can write to him and ask him to provide the following information - and that is the "laundry list" of paragraphs a - f. Paragraph G is informational and tells you that if he is married his spouses income does not count for child support purposes.

Sometimes, when someone (like the Guru) explains the mechanics of a matter it may appear as 'easy peasy.' However, as you probably will remember from your divorce or from conversations with other people about their divorces, or as you have seen in some of the questions and answers here on LAW GURU - matters of law are usually more complicated than one might otherwise expect or imagine.

You can use the State of NM child support enforcement division to try and run this matter for you. They will not represent you but they will do some work on your case. You can also speak with private counsel and see what a private attorney can do for you. You did not state your ZIP code so I cannot direct you to lawyers in your area/town. But, rest assured that this type of matter is one that many private lawyers work in all the time.

Good Luck.

Law Guru