I recently read an article about new Florida laws that may complicate child support.
Florida recently considered two bills geared towards state alimony and child support laws. The bills were merged into one and passed both the Senate and House. For parents affected by the new child support law, the process of setting up child support will become more complicated.
One change to their child support law is to reduce the need for the filing of modification petitions each time a child reaches the age of majority. For those with more than one child under the age of 18, guidelines for child support in settlements needs to include the child support guidelines amount and also the remaining child support payable after each child reaches the age of 18. Now the modification to reduce support is automatic.
Another change is the requirement of imputation of income to any parent voluntarily unemployed. The imputation would be at Florida minimum wage. Under the old law, while automatic imputation did not exist, there was the assumption that income could be imputed at the minimum wage level under federal law. In effect, the new change approximately doubles the imputed income that can be used in calculating child support. This change is intended to make it difficult for parents to decrease income levels intentionally in an effort to pay less in child support.
Clearly, the calculation of child support is not an autmatic formula. I am not a lawyer practicing in Florida, but I am a California lawyer practicing in family law.
If there are any legal questions you may have, I encourage you to, please contact my San Jose Divorce Lawyers office. My San Jose Family Lawyer offices assists many people who are going through family law related issues. We have many Affordable San Jose Divorce Lawyer solutions for many different budgets. We help many individuals through this very chaotic period in their life. Proudly serving the following cities, Fremont, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Santa Clara.
Author's Notes
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Guardianship by Grandparents over their Grandchildren. Grandparents rights.
I thought it would be interesting to talk about an article I recently found that covered benefits and things to consider when contemplating legal guardianship of children.
According to the article, the census reports there are more and more grandparents who are taking care of their grandchildren. There are many considerations a grandparent can undertake when considering whether guardianship over their grandchildren is right for them.
An attorney can help determine if it would be beneficial for a person to become a legal guardian. Legal guardianship allows guardians to make important decisions regarding education, medical treatment, etc.
When considering healthcare for a child, many states allow grandparents with legal guardianship of their grandchildren to add them to employee benefit plans. For those who are retired, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program will usually cover checkups, eyeglasses, shots, medicine and hospital stays.
If finances are an issue, child support, foster care or adoption assistance, and subsidized guardianship can help with the expenses of raising a child. Some families qualify for Social Security or state-run temporary assistance programs. Grandparents should consider an additional life insurance policy to provide living expenses to grandchildren in case of premature grandparental death.
There are also tax credits available for grandparents raising grandchildren under the age of 17. Grandparents living on a low income can apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit Education fund.
If there are any legal questions you may have, I encourage you to, please contact my San Jose Divorce Lawyers office. My San Jose Family Lawyer offices assists many people who are going through family law related issues. We have many Affordable San Jose Divorce Lawyer solutions for many different budgets. We help many individuals through this very chaotic period in their life. Proudly serving the following cities, Fremont, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Santa Clara.
According to the article, the census reports there are more and more grandparents who are taking care of their grandchildren. There are many considerations a grandparent can undertake when considering whether guardianship over their grandchildren is right for them.
An attorney can help determine if it would be beneficial for a person to become a legal guardian. Legal guardianship allows guardians to make important decisions regarding education, medical treatment, etc.
When considering healthcare for a child, many states allow grandparents with legal guardianship of their grandchildren to add them to employee benefit plans. For those who are retired, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program will usually cover checkups, eyeglasses, shots, medicine and hospital stays.
If finances are an issue, child support, foster care or adoption assistance, and subsidized guardianship can help with the expenses of raising a child. Some families qualify for Social Security or state-run temporary assistance programs. Grandparents should consider an additional life insurance policy to provide living expenses to grandchildren in case of premature grandparental death.
There are also tax credits available for grandparents raising grandchildren under the age of 17. Grandparents living on a low income can apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit Education fund.
If there are any legal questions you may have, I encourage you to, please contact my San Jose Divorce Lawyers office. My San Jose Family Lawyer offices assists many people who are going through family law related issues. We have many Affordable San Jose Divorce Lawyer solutions for many different budgets. We help many individuals through this very chaotic period in their life. Proudly serving the following cities, Fremont, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Santa Clara.
Under New Law Fathers Easier Time Challenge Paternity
An article I recently read covers the topic of child support payments in Missouri. The article stated that even if the fathers had DNA evidence proving they were not the biological father of the child, they were stuck paying child support until the child was 18. Prior to last year, many were forced to pay child support for children that were not biologically their own until the child turned 18. The new law allows men more opportunities to petition courts to order DNA testing and set aside paternity judgments and child support obligations within certain time frames after the child is born.
When the law first came into effect in the summer of 2009, it was expected that a inundation of petitions would be submitted to the courts and that a full day out of the month would need to be dedicated to handling the expected rush of new cases, but there has not been a large change in the number of petitions for DNA testing. The costs involved to petition the court are not cheap. One possible reason why this is happening is because a father may have to pay up to $1,200 to get the case into court and cover the cost of DNA testing.
The new law allows any man paying child support to file a challenge to the paternity question until December 31, 2011. After that, men will have two years to file such lawsuits after judgments of paternity or support have been entered to get the issue of paternity set aside. The previous law allowed such challenges for only a year and the father had to prove fraud. Although it should be noted that men who were found not to be the father still could be ordered to pay child support.
Lawyers caution that even though the father is absolved by DNA evidence, the court may still order the father to pay child support to the child. This is because the court's use the best interest of the child standard. They will balance the interests of the child in whether or not to absolve a father of child support liability.
If there are any legal questions you may have, I encourage you to, please contact my San Jose Divorce Lawyers office. My San Jose Family Lawyer offices assists many people who are going through family law related issues. We have many Affordable San Jose Divorce Lawyer solutions for many different budgets. We help many individuals through this very chaotic period in their life. Proudly serving the following cities, Fremont, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Santa Clara.
When the law first came into effect in the summer of 2009, it was expected that a inundation of petitions would be submitted to the courts and that a full day out of the month would need to be dedicated to handling the expected rush of new cases, but there has not been a large change in the number of petitions for DNA testing. The costs involved to petition the court are not cheap. One possible reason why this is happening is because a father may have to pay up to $1,200 to get the case into court and cover the cost of DNA testing.
The new law allows any man paying child support to file a challenge to the paternity question until December 31, 2011. After that, men will have two years to file such lawsuits after judgments of paternity or support have been entered to get the issue of paternity set aside. The previous law allowed such challenges for only a year and the father had to prove fraud. Although it should be noted that men who were found not to be the father still could be ordered to pay child support.
Lawyers caution that even though the father is absolved by DNA evidence, the court may still order the father to pay child support to the child. This is because the court's use the best interest of the child standard. They will balance the interests of the child in whether or not to absolve a father of child support liability.
If there are any legal questions you may have, I encourage you to, please contact my San Jose Divorce Lawyers office. My San Jose Family Lawyer offices assists many people who are going through family law related issues. We have many Affordable San Jose Divorce Lawyer solutions for many different budgets. We help many individuals through this very chaotic period in their life. Proudly serving the following cities, Fremont, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Santa Clara.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)