Now what....

[fl1101]

My significant other is in the process of trying to modify his parenting plan and reduce child support - he says his child support was calculated incorrectly (his ex calculated and filled out and filed all papers related to their divorce - she is an accountant). His children reside with their mother - 2 hours away. He has the kids every weekend but would like to have more time with them in the summer and less weekends during the school year - nothing unreasonable. Mediation was not successful. After 2 years a trial is set in a week. His ex, who has been employed since the divorce, just refiled her financial affidavit because she is now unemployed - he suspects she quit her job just to reduce her income. He works full-time.

How will her lack of a job effect his child support? Will the judge only consider her current unemployed status or look at what she has been earning for the last year or so?? Will a judge even consider modifying the parenting plan in a situation like this? Thanks in advance.

[Attorney Cheri Hobbs]

He will need to show that she is voluntarily unemployed (i.e., she quit and not was laid off for other reasons). If he can show that then he can argue that the court should use her previous income for imputation purposes when calculating child support.

[fl1101]

Thank you for your response Ms. Hobbs. I appreciate your advice.

Unbelievably the judge just ordered a second mediation - on the day following what would have been the original trial date. If mediation fails, then another trial date will be set. Is this unusual for a judge to do this? Does this look unfavorably on both parties? Thank you.

[Attorney Howard Iken]

Some judges seem to like setting second mediations. It does not reflect unfavorably on anyone.

[fl1101]

Thank you Mr Iken.

[fl1101]

To follow-up on my previous post - and just in case anyone finds this info useful......

After the second mediation my significant other was able to have his parenting plan revised to having his kids every other weekend and more weeks inthe summer. The judge would not recalculate the original child support amount as my significant other signed the final judgment - even though you can clearly see the support was incorrectly calculated to inflate child support, i.e. not giving father credit for health insurance costs. Anyway, per the ex-wife's request, my sig other has to upgrade his health insurance to a more expensive plan and the judge recalculated child support based on that cost - I'm totally confused on that one. The judge did order counseling for both parents so that they can learn to communicate better - have to give him kudos there.