IMPORTANT – NOTHING ON THIS BLOG IS TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE. CONSULT WITH A FLORIDA DIVORCE ATTORNEY FOR LEGAL ADVICE.
A client of ours recently hired us to help her with her divorce.
Her first words to me where “I do not want child support”
Immediately I shared with her websites where attorneys explain the child support situation in Florida, here are some of them:
- https://www.floridalegaladvice.com/blog/child-support/
- https://www.leapfrogdivorce.com/child-support
- https://www.gfclawfl.com/marital-family-law/child-support/
She felt uneasy about all of this because in her eyes her husband provided anything she needed for the children and they had a good relationship.
Eventually she understood that it’s inevitable and they both reached an agreement for an amount lower than the child support guidelines.
There is a form called Motion to Deviate from Child Support that is used in order to have the amount lowered, which we prepared for her.
When the time came and the judge staff looked at the paperwork they told her that if she pursued the motion to deviate they would need to go in front of a judge.
Since the reason why she hired me was to have a uncontested divorce florida no court appearance, she was not happy.
We had to modify the documents to reflect the full amount of child support per the child support guidelines.
If you are thinking of filing for a divorce with children I highly suggest that you review the links I provided above and share them with your spouse so that you are both on the same page.
The Myth of Waiving Child Support in Florida
Child support is calculated with 5 elements:
1 – Income from both parents (after taxes, medical insurance and other deductions)
2 – Child care expense
3 – Medical Insurance for children expense
4 – Out of pocket medical insurance expense
5 – Amount of overnights with each parent
The first step is to add both incomes and plug it in against the child support guidelines table.
Then whoever pays for child care expenses, medical insurance for the children and out of pocket medical expenses will receive a credit for that amount.
Finally the amount of overnights by each parent is taken into consideration and each parent will get a credit for their care.
THIS IS HOW SOME NONCUSTODIAL PARENTS END UP WITHOUT A CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION OR A LESSER AMOUNT
Any request for the judge to consider a lesser amount that is not supported by the child support calculations needs to prove that it would be for the benefit of the children. Any other reason and the judge will deny the request.
I hope this blog post helps you in some way.
If you have any legal questions please contact a Florida divorce attorney.
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