Hello. My name is Reardon Stanford, of Hoyt & Stanford, L.L.C. I’m a board certified family law specialist, and I’ve been practicing law for over 20 years.
So how is child support calculated?
It’s a somewhat complicated process based on tables that consider the income of the parties. We start by determining what the average gross monthly income is for each party. And by gross, I mean before withholdings– not “take home pay”. For example, if you make $50,000 per year, your average gross monthly income is approximately $4200 per month.
Once we know the average monthly income of the parties, we plug those totals into the tables and use a worksheet to consider various other factors such as:
– the number of children;
– the type of custody. For example, do the children live primarily with one parent, or do the parties share custody on an equal basis? Different calculations are used depending on the custody in place.
– We also consider or add certain expenses. Some expenses are mandatory, such as child care or health insurance premiums. Others are optional. Common optional expenses that may be considered are private school costs, and sometimes, extracurricular activities;
If you have an issue with child support, please contact me here, at Hoyt and Stanford. We’ll go over the information, and the numbers together and discuss what your rights, and options, are.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Reardon is an Attorney & Counselor at Law and Board Certified Family Law Specialist His primary areas of practice are Divorce & Family Law and General Civil Litigation and is located in Lafayette, LA