Fort Lauderdale Child Support Lawyer
Help with Child Support Matters from Experienced Fort Lauderdale Family Law Attorneys
Both parents have a legal responsibility to support their children financially. This is true whether the parents are married, divorced or never married at all. In a Florida divorce between a couple with children, the judge will order one parent to pay a monthly amount of child support to the other. While this process may seem straightforward, it can actually be quite complex, and there are many factors to consider when determining the appropriate monthly amount. If you are seeking child support in your divorce in Fort Lauderdale or Fort Lauderdale, or if you are the parent being asked to pay support, the Fort Lauderdale child support lawyers at Trachman & Ballot-Lena, PA can help ensure that the needs of the children are met while also seeing to it that your rights and interests are adequately represented. Learn more about child support in Florida below, and contact our offices for a no-cost evaluation of your case.
Understanding the Florida Child Support Guidelines
Child support in Florida is determined according to guidelines set out in the law. These guidelines take into account each parent’s income, the number of children to be supported, the percentage of time the children spend with each parent, and additional costs such as healthcare costs for the children and daycare or aftercare expenses. After plugging all of these figures into a statutory formula, the guidelines will show a presumptive monthly amount of child support .
How Our Fort Lauderdale Family Law Attorneys can Help with Child Support
Following the Florida child support guidelines requires completing and referring to a dizzying array of worksheets, schedules and tables, affidavits and more. Whether you are paid weekly, bi-weekly or in some other fashion, you must convert your income to a monthly amount for the guidelines to work. All income must also be included, including salary, wages, tips, commissions, business income, self-employment income, disability benefits, pensions and retirement, social security benefits, alimony from this case or other cases, monthly interest and dividends, rental income, trust income and more.
We can help you through the complicated task of determining your income and gathering and providing the documentation necessary to complete the guidelines formula correctly. Just as important or more so, we can also work to ensure that your spouse is correctly reporting his or her own income. It is not uncommon for a divorcing spouse to hide assets or underreport income, or even to become voluntarily unemployed or underemployed during a divorce, in order to gain an advantage regarding child support, alimony or the division of marital property. Our experienced divorce lawyers know how to request and examine documents when hiding or underreporting assets is suspected.
Another way we can help is by understanding that the monthly support amount determined by the guidelines is only a presumptive amount. Florida family law judges are empowered to deviate from the guidelines, up or down, by as much as five percent after considering factors such as the needs of the children, age, station in life, standard of living, and each parent’s financial status and ability. Additionally, judges can even deviate from the guidelines by more than five percent if they find that the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate. If you are seeking or opposing a deviation from the guidelines amount, we can help by preparing and presenting a persuasive case that supports your position for the proper amount of child support.
Help is Available with Child Support Matters in Fort Lauderdale
For practical legal advice and excellent representation in a Fort Lauderdale drug crime prosecution, call Trachman & Ballot-Lena, PA at 954-462-2208 or Mr. Trachman’s cellphone at 954-288-9293 to have your case reviewed at no cost by an experienced and successful Broward County criminal defense attorney.
