How to Increase Child Support Payments?

Often the amount of child-support is meticulously planned taking everything including the details into account. But what if the amount no longer covers your children’s basic needs? Sandy Springs, GA divorce lawyers who can be reached on this tremendous website suggest that you will have to seek court intervention to get the child support amount raised to meet your financial requirements. Both the custodial and the non-custodial parent can ask the court to reduce or increase the amount.

Provide Evidence of Considerable Change in Your Circumstances

It is important to note that requirements vary state wide. However, generally speaking, the parent who requests the change will have to prove to the court after the initial child-support amount was granted there had been a significant change in circumstances. A modification in child support can be demanded if a parent suffered from a job loss or even a raise in salary. In many cases, the child’s needs might have been altered due to various reasons.

If a paying ex-spouse receives a bonus at work how will the other spouse find out? What are the chances of one spouse informing their ex about this knowing they will just take them to court and ask for more money? The spouse that received the bump in pay would even want to keep this from their children. That could be hard to do! You need legal help to find out your spouse’s true income. No worries, you may be able to receive some support retroactively as well since most likely your ex did not divulge that information on time.

When can you demand a change?

If the non-custodial parent has benefitted financially from a salary hike (10% or more) the court may deem that the child is entitled to benefit from the change in scenario and Georgia divorce attorneys will be involved in this pursuit.

If the custodial parent has suffered involuntary job loss or even a decrease in salary (10% or more) then the parent can demand a change in the child support settlement.

Thirdly, if the child’s needs have increased substantially then the parent may ask for a raise in child support.  Remember, additional educational or medical expenses can happen at any point while the cost of living is most likely to increase. Even in a recession which America is in now and has been for years there could be some cost of living increases.

There are instances when the court denies an increase. This happens when a parent left a job intentionally or has agreed to a pay cut purely to get the amount of child support raised.

Child Support Modification must be made Official

Parents who want a modification must go to court with their legal representatives to make the change of official. Without the official stamp on the modified amount it is not binding on the non-custodial parent to pay no matter how incredible your Sandy Springs, GA divorce lawyer is. 

Getting a court order to this effect is mandatory. Often parents sit together and settle on an amount on their own. They might also have a written agreement that is formulated in the presence of their attorney. However, this does not mean that they do not not need a court order. They will need a fresh court order that reflects the new terms. Verbal agreements are not advised since any strain in relations between the ex-spouses is foreseeable. Therefore, a court order is essential, certainly for the spouse that is the dependent one.

For the most part, verbal agreements cannot be enforced. This means if the parent fails to abide by the terms of the verbal agreement, the court will take no step to make the payment a legal obligation as there was no court order.

The process of requesting a modification is usually simple. You will have to fill out some forms and submit them to the court. In most cases, the modifications are granted without a hearing if the judge finds it reasonable and both parents have agreed to the change.

When there is a disagreement a hearing is scheduled where both parents present their case with their Sandy Springs, Georgia divorce lawyers who can be found using this legal resource digital tool: http://divorce.usattorneys.com/georgia/.

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