Child support can be either the gift that keeps on giving or can be the albatross around your neck. Don’t take chances with your child’s future or your future well-being. Palumbo Law can represent you in your child support case or child support modification.
How Is Child Support Calculated in Georgia?
In Georgia, child support law can be found in Title 19 of the Domestic Relations Code. The factors and formulas within the code (see O.C.G.A § 19-6-15) determine how child support is calculated. While many lawyers will be able to determine the Parties’ presumptive child support obligation and determine each Party’s individual pro rata share, an experienced child support attorney like Dan Palumbo will be able to maximize or minimize the final amount paid or received.
Dan Palumbo can show you how self-employment taxes, pre-existing child support orders, and/or theoretical child support orders can reduce the monthly amount you will have to pay; or conversely, Dan can explain to the Court how these reductions are not appropriate in a given case. Including or excluding discretionary deviations can add or save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a child support order.
- Do you qualify for a low income, extradentary expense, mortgage, alimony, travel expense, child and dependent tax credit, life insurance, other health related insurance, parenting time or non-specific deviation?
- For a high income deviation, should your ex-spouse pay more than the presumptive amount
Let Dan analyze the facts of your case and work for you to increase the amount of child support you will receive or decrease the amount you will have to pay each month.
Georgia Online Child Support Calculator: https://csconlinecalc.georgiacourts.gov/frontend/web/index.php
Negotiation for Child Support in Georgia
This is where Palumbo Law can help you the most. Nothing within the Code Section O.C.G.A 19-6-15 prevents the Parties from entering into an enforceable agreement, contrary to the presumptive amount, within the Statute. The Court will review the adequacy of the child support amount negotiated by the Parties and look at provisions for medical expenses and health insurance. Furthermore, the Parties’ agreement must contain findings of fact to legally explain to the Court why the Parties’ child support agreement is acceptable and the presumptive amount is not in the best interest of the child.
Let Dan Palumbo work for you in negotiating and drafting a Child Support Addendum that will save you thousands of dollars over time or bring you the maximum amount.
Existing Child Support can be Modified in Georgia
Times change and situations change. What might have been fair and equitable when it was ordered by the Court, or agreed to by the Parties, may no longer work or be in the best interest of the child. Georgia law allows parents to modify their child support obligation under certain conditions. Whether you are the payer of child support seeking to have your support reduced, or are the recipient of child support interested in having the other party’s obligation increased, Palumbo Law can help you.
A parent has the right to petition for modification of a child support award regardless of the length of time since the establishment of the child support order if there is a substantial change in either parent’s income and financial status, or the needs of the child.
If the Order creating the child support obligation is less than two years old, in general, a Petition to Modify the Order cannot be filed unless:
- The noncustodial parent has failed to exercise court ordered visitation
- The noncustodial parent has exercised a greater amount of visitation than was provided in the court order
- The basis of the modification is based upon an involuntary loss of income
- A parent suffers an involuntary termination of employment
- A parent has an extended involuntary loss of average weekly employment hours
- A parent is involved in an organized strike, or incurs a serious illness impacting employment
- A parent becomes incarcerated
- A parent experiences a similar involuntary adversity resulting in a loss of income of 25 percent or more
Who’s Paying for all those Monthly Child Activities?
Calculating child support is not the end of the story when a divorce with children is occurring. All those bills and activities that may have gone undiscussed when you were married or been paid without much thought or discussion may now become an issue. Attorney Dan Palumbo will protect your interests so that if a disagreement arises it will be covered within your divorce agreement. Out-of-pocket medical expenses, extra-curricular activities, extraordinary educational expenses, camp, daycare, private school, dance lessons, children’s cell phones, and music lessons are some of the issues you may face after your divorce that can dramatically affect how much money you have to come up with each month. Don’t navigate this minefield alone. Dan has been here before and he knows the landscape.
Military Compensation as Gross Monthly Income
When calculating gross income of a military service member, gross monthly income includes base pay or drill pay, basic allowance for subsistence (BAS) and basic allowance for housing (BAH). However, BAH amounts for dependents or area variable housing costs are not part of monthly gross income. Dan Palumbo is experienced in dealing with active duty and retired military members and is well-versed in helping them win their case, or reduce the amount they will have to pay.
Hiding Income and Underemployment
In many cases calculating a party’s gross monthly income is very simple and straightforward. However, Dan Palumbo has had an equal amount of cases where reliably determining gross monthly income is difficult, if not bordering on speculative. Long term unemployment, transitional unemployment, retirement, changes in employers, changes in employment fields, new ventures, payments in cash or tips, and employment based on commissions are some of the challenges that can be present when trying to accurately calculate how much money a person makes each month. As a layperson you may not be equipped to convince the Court to impute income to your ex-spouse. Dan Palumbo will help you prove your case in order to maximize your amount of child support or limit your monthly obligation of child support. Imputing income is a topic Dan has written about and presented on a panel discussion for the American Bar Association.
Don’t go it alone, call Dan Palumbo.