Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Amount of Child Support

I am licensed to practice in Virginia, but not North Carolina or Hawaii. In my experience, under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, no state other than the one which initially set the child support award can adjust it. Any other state can be asked to enforce the foreign support decree, but not to modify it.On your second question, there is not a national standard for child support awards. Each state is free to fix it based on what we hope is a fair estimate of what it takes to support a child in any given state. Virginia has adopted statutory child support guidelines which are based on the combined gross monthly income of the parents. Those guidelines are found in Virginia Code Section 20-108.2 and are presumed to be the correct amount of support. However, under certain circumstances, deviation from the guidelines is authorized. Not all states have similar guidelines; for states that don't, you're at the mercy of the judge when he determines what is an appropriate level of support.

Child support guidelines

As a general rule, you cannot modify a child support payment in anotherstate other than the one that originated the order. There are statestandards for child support but no national standard. The standardscan vary widely from state to state and can create great hardships as aresult.

NC child support guidelines

NC has 3 sets of child support guidelines, one for sole custody, one for joint custody, and one for shared custody. Each set takes into account both parents income and whether each parent has other children and/or child support obligations. A basic child support obligation is established based on that information alone, and each parents percentage of income is computed. To the basic child support obligation is then added work-related child care, expenses, health insurance premiums, and other extraordinary expenses. Once those figures are added together, the state then multiplies that number by the percentage income of each parent. Sounds complicated, but the form is self-explanatory if you have the charts from the state.

Child support can be modified in NC upon a showing of changed circumstances affecting the best interest of the child; specifically, a change in either parent's income, not having child care expenses anymore, etc. However, there are lots of glitches there, and income can be imputed to a parent if he or she voluntarily reduces his or her income.

If you can provide me with the information needed (see first paragraph), I'll run it through the computer and give you an estimate of what you should be paying in NC. However, keep in mind that my estimate is only as good as the information you provide.

By the way, if the decree is a NC decree and the children are still present in NC, then the order must be modified in NC.

Dependssetting child support

I am not familiar with the laws of the states you mentioned, but I would advise you to move(motion) your home state court for jurisiction ]first. In NY, and other states I believe, we use the Child Support Standards Act(when theparties themselves can't agree on an amount).What about moving for custody?