Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: Child Support Payments High - Not able to survive

RE: The unemployed father.

First there is the legal principal in support issues of "imputing" income to a party who is intentionally unemployed. To compute what a court may possibly order him to pay you need to

examine the following in Code of Virgina:

�� 20-108.2 Contains the statutory scheme or formulae for setting the monthly installments of child support to be paid by the non-custodial parent. This schedule applies both in the Domestic Courts and the Circuit Courts of Virginia. It is based essentially upon the relative income of the custodial and non custodial parent. It establishes a very strong prima facie measure of the dollar sum of payments. However a number of mitigating factors are listed in the Code as possibly modifying the effect of the schedule. Example: debts and health of one of the parents or health of the child, etc.

You do not specify as to whether you have been ordered to pay your ex any spousal support, as such. Your message infers that you are somehow supporting him as well. Also, you do not mention whether you had legal representation in that hearing. This is certainly a type of case where you needed counsel representation. Looking at the length of time since the divorce decree, the child support issue may have been "remanded" to the Juvenile Court. However, that remand would not change the basic issue.

Also, if you can prove a case that the father is intentionally unemployed, you might seek a reconsideration of the custody matter!

Wayne Comer, Esq.

Vienna, (Dunn Loring) Va.

For Code of Va. on line, search law,leg1, State, Virginia, Code

Re: Child Support Payments High - Not able to survive

If your ex-husband is deliberately unemployed or

underemployed in order to avoid his having to pay child support, the court may impute income to him

which it reasonably concludes that he is capable of earning and then factor it into the income shares formula which is used in the Commonwealth to determine child support--along with any other relevant factors--to determine the amounts which each parent is responsible for.