How Child Support During a Divorce Works in Palm Beach County, Florida
Whether you need to establish child support or modify child support, The Law Offices of Marie Calla Quartell, P.A. can help you. If child support has never been paid, the Court can go back 24 months from the date a court case is filed. This is very important to an individual who has never received any financial assistance with support.
If a child support order is currently in place, a modification can be sought to either allow a parent to receive more child support or pay less child support. There must be a substantial change in circumstance since the time of the entry of the child support order. Generally, a year must have passed since the last modification or the time of the last order. Examples of circumstances warranting modification are a reduction or increase in income, a parent who is failing to exercise visitation with the children and changes in who is maintaining health insurance.
Florida Child Support Guidelines
Florida uses child support guidelines to determine the amount of the child support that must be paid. Our office has the latest software that is used to properly calculate the support. Support is based on a mathematical formula that takes into consideration the amount of time sharing, amount of income and many other factors. The formula considers who is paying for health insurance and in what amount.
Our office also services those parents who are not receiving court ordered child support. In these instances, the courts have many vehicles with which to enforce child support, such as requiring employment search, and in some cases, incarceration for the parent who fails to pay support. In order to be incarcerated, however, the payor must have willfully refused to obey a court order. Those persons who truly cannot afford to pay may be required to report to the court his or her job search efforts, or even be required to sell assets to satisfy support.
In all cases where the payor has failed to pay, our Marital and Family attorney can assist with seeking suspension of driver’s license, restriction of passport privileges or even the automatic redirection of tax refunds.
Paying for Child Support
Our Law Firm also assists those who cannot pay for child support.
Please note that if your license is suspended for child support, and you drive anyway, you are subject to criminal prosecution if you are caught. This can lead to jail time, or even prison time, depending on the number of offenses. Marie has substantial experience in criminal law as well, and can assist persons who have found themselves in criminal court for driving under suspension.
