Background:The child's grandmother was awarded full custody many years ago due to both biological parents abandoning the child. Each biological parent was ordered to pay a separate child support obligation. Neither party has any contact with the child.
Present Issue:After extensive litigation, my client has just been awarded joint custody as a "psychological parent" and will have a child support obligation as well. He will have approximately 114 overnight visitation per year, therefore would fall under the Shared Parent Guidelines.
Question:How do you calculate child support for 3 obligators for one child?
I see that in the guidelines there is an entry of child support under non-taxable income. I ran the guidelines adding the child support in that section. My concern is that the two previously set child support were based on only two obligators, so their support is higher that what it would be if my client's obligation was also taken into consideration. This also lowers my client's obligation as their contribution is higher than it would be. I would like to take the position that the other support obligations remain the same (unless they make an application to modify) and that I run the numbers as described above, putting their contributions into non-taxable income for the PPR. Unfortunately the biological parents do not pay (with arrears of $10,000 and $15,000) and the custodian has not enforced. I have a feeling that my adversary is going to want to run the number fresh for all three.
- What is the best way to run the guidelines to include all three obligators and determine each of their separate obligations?
- Which alternative (or another if you can suggest) is standard practice?
Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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Cara A. McCafferty, Attorney at Law
975 Route 73 North, Suite A
Marlton, New Jersey 08053
Tel: (856) 596-9000
Fax: (856) 596-5511
[email protected]------------------------------