Support

State Has Guidelines to Calculate a Fair Share in Child Support Payments

September 3, 2011 | Kearns Rotolo Law

The $46,000 per month in child support supermodel Linda Evangelista is seeking from the father of her four-year-old son may raise some eyebrows.(1) After all, that’s more than some people earn in a year. And the recent court order requiring actor Mel Gibson to pay his ex $750,000 over five years to settle their bitter custody battle may stir similar reactions.(2) Although these high-cost celebrity cases may feel like revenge of a partner scorned, child custody issues are serious matters.

New Jersey considers all parents responsible for supporting their children, which means providing the basics of food, shelter and clothing. That responsibility does not end when a marriage dissolves.

Oftentimes couples get caught in a financial “catch-22” once they marry and have children. Now there are three or more mouths to feed. If both parents work, they incur the added expense of childcare. If one parent cuts his/her working hours to avoid the childcare expense, that parent’s income is then lowered and there is less money to pay expenses. Finances are generally one of the major stress factors in marriage. Divorce doesn’t solve the problem either; rather, it can make financial problems worse, because after divorce there are two households to support in addition to the continued need to provide the basics.(3)

Paying Parent Has Right to School Records

April 30, 2011 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Issues of privacy between parents and children can be very sensitive matters, with parents trying to balance their desire to support and protect with their children’s rights. Sometimes, however, a parent’s right to know can supersede the child’s privacy rights, as illustrated in the recent New Jersey case of Van Brunt v. Van Brunt.

The question in that case came down to whether children can both evoke their right to privacy under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and claim entitlement to child support and financial assistance with their education. The court’s answer essentially was no.

The Van Brunts are a divorced couple who have joint legal custody of their two children. Under terms of their divorce, Mrs. Van Brunt was named primary residential parent and Mr. Van Brunt was ordered to pay child support, including contributions towards the children’s college expenses, until they become emancipated. The children would not be considered emancipated, according to the agreement, as long as they were enrolled in a full-time, four-year academic college program. (1)

Should Your Right to an Attorney Pertain to Child Support Cases?

April 17, 2011 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Anyone who has ever watched a TV police drama is familiar with the line “. . . You have the right to speak to an attorney . . . If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense.” (1) The question currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court is whether this right, which usually pertains to defendants in criminal cases, should be extended to include defendants in civil cases, specifically child support matters. (2)

The particular case under consideration involves a South Carolina father who has been held in civil contempt on several occasions and sentenced to as much as one year in jail at a time for failure to make his child support payments. (2)

Since 1963, the Supreme Court has held that people facing incarceration must have the opportunity to be represented by an attorney. People who cannot afford an attorney are provided with one. That ruling, however, was tied to the Sixth Amendment and only related to criminal proceedings, not civil matters. Still, a number of states, including New Jersey, make provisions for impoverished people in child support cases. (2)

Are Children Conceived Posthumously Eligible for Survivor Benefits?

January 22, 2011 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Social Security insurance provides survivor benefits for dependent children of deceased workers to help compensate for the loss of financial support. Dependent children are defined as unmarried and under age 18 (19 if still full-time high school students). But are children conceived after the death of a parent eligible for these benefits? According to a U.S. appeals court, they may be. (1)

Karen Capato, a New Jersey mother, filed for and was denied survivor benefits on behalf of her twins who had been conceived in vitro after the death of their father, Robert. Mr. Capato had his sperm frozen before undergoing treatments for cancer in the hopes of producing a sibling for the couple’s other child. Mr. Capato died in March 2002; the twins were born in September of the following year. (2)

According to Social Security regulations, applicants have the right to appeal an agency decision. That process has four levels: reconsideration, hearing, an Appeals Council review and a review by a Federal Court. (3)

Child Support Sweep Nets Hundreds of Delinquent Parents

December 13, 2010 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Efforts by the 21 sheriffs’ departments throughout New Jersey resulted in the arrest of some 953 people on charges of failure to pay child support. Those arrested owed over $14 million in combined child support payments. As of December 10, the State had collected about $233,000 or that amount as a result of the arrests. (1)

This three-day sweep was a cooperative effort by New Jersey’s Child Support Services and the State’s Sheriffs Association to ensure that non-custodial parents abide by the court ordered child support payments. These sweeps seek out both parents who are in arrears on their child support and those who neglect to attend court hearings to set up medical and/or support payment schedules. (2)

New Jersey’s Child Support Agency is entrusted with ensuring that child support payments are made in accordance with court orders. The Agency uncovers incidents of non-payment or late or partial payment of support and takes action to rectify the situation. Those actions can include, but are not limited to, withholding income, seizing assets such as lottery winnings and/or settlements or awards resulting from civil suits, and offsetting tax refunds. (3)

Proposed Law Could Make It Easier to Collect Child Support Payments across State Lines

October 9, 2010 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Child support is a court-ordered payment made by the non-custodial parent to help with the expenses of raising the child. It helps to assure that both parents retain responsibility for their children and that children do not suffer financially from the divorce of their parents.

Laws regulating child support payments vary from state to state; New Jersey has some of the strictest child support laws in the country.

In calculating the amount of child support payments, several factors are taken into consideration, including the fair income of each parent. This includes all wages, overtime, unemployment benefits and even lottery winnings. Also considered are the taxes and deductions taken from these wages. Only mandatory deductions, such as income taxes are counted; however, voluntary deductions are not. (1)

Child Support Roundup in New Jersey

July 14, 2010 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Supporting a child is an important role a parent and/or a guardian play in a child’s life be it emotional or moral support and certainly, as any parent can attest, monetary support. However, in the case of a family that is no longer intact, monetary child support often is lacking because of the untimeliness of child support payments. Approximately 38% of child support providers are responsible for medical bills, health care, and various other health care costs of the child so it is important that child support is paid on time. (1)

Unfortunately all too often the non-custodial parent falls behind in child support payments.

New Ruling on Child Support Modification

June 18, 2009 | Kearns Rotolo Law

Parties’ daughter was killed in an automobile accident on October 6, 2007. On January 10, 2008, the plaintiff filed a pro se motion seeking, inter alia, to reduce child support. The plaintiff argued that any modification should be retroactive to the date of the daughters death, while the defendant posited that the filing date of the plaintiff’s motion should go

The applicable law is N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56.23(a), which basically states that child support can not be made retroactive and will only be permitted from the date of the filing of the motion.

The issue here was whether child support is to be amended on the date of the child’s death or the filing date of the motion. There have been several scenarios where the courts have granted retroactive modification to child support. In the case of Keegan v. Keegan, 326, N.J. Super. 289, 741 A.2d 134 (App. Div. 1999), trial court granted a retroactive increase in the aspect of child support. Halliwell v. Halliwell, 326 N.J. Super. 442, 741 A.2d 638 (App. Div. 1999), dealt with the issue of retroactive modification of an obligor who was incarcerated for an extended period of time

Fighting over Child Support After the Pink Slip Arrives

June 1, 2009 | Kearns Rotolo Law

New York Times
By: Julie Bosman

The same story echoed a dozen times through Room E8 of Manhattan Family Court in a single day: fathers, pinched by the recession, pleading for a reduction in child support.

A salesman at Saks Fifth Avenue who is estranged from his teenage daughter said he feared he would be included in the next round of layoffs expected at his store.

A man who had been laid off from a factory said he managed to find work at Mets games, but for less pay, $9 an hour. Another man, on the verge of eviction, begged for a break from his $315 monthly payments.

“Last week was my child’s birthday, and I couldn’t get him a present,” he said, burying his head in his hands. “This is killing me.”

Since January, Family Court in New York has been filled with urgent requests like these, alarming judges and overwhelming calendars with what are known as modification cases.

Palimony-in-Writing Bill Passed by Senate Judiciary Committee

February 23, 2009 | Kearns Rotolo Law

By Michael Booth

New Jersey Law Journal

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved bipartisan-sponsored legislation that would require all palimony agreements to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable.