Thank you for joining me. My name is LaSheena Williams and I am a Maryland family law attorney. My firm helps our clients take control of out-of-control domestic situations. Today, we will be discussing common mistakes in child support modification hearings.
Failing To Track Informal Child Support Payments
Child support is child support and it’s very important to track any informal child support payments you make. If you’re sending money for support through Zell or Venmo or a Cash app to support your children or if you’re making purchases at your partner’s request on amazon or some other delivery type service, it’s important to keep track of the expenses you’re paying for your child.
Failing To Track Childcare
If you have child care, it is very important to track that expense. Whether you’re paying someone informally to care for your children or you’re paying a child care provider, you want to make sure you have a record of what you’re paying for child care. If you have an appropriate record, you can use your prior child care expenses at your child support modification hearing to show how much support your spouse owed you for that time.
Failing To Have Childcare
A lot of people who are filing to establish or modify child support feel as though they can’t afford child care. The problem is, if you’re not incurring an actual child care expense and you don’t know what that child care expense will be at the time of your modification or establishment hearing, the court is unlikely to consider that expense. Which will mean even though you need child care, you may not have enough support to actually cover the child care you need for your children after your child support hearing.
Failing To Subpoena Employee Records
When establishing child support, a lot of partners lie about their employment. They may lie about what they make or the frequency of their payments and it’s important to subpoena the employment records. The employer has absolutely no reason to not be honest and transparent about what their employee makes and you are more likely to get a more thorough explanation about your partner’s current salary, any overtime, any benefits, various other things that could drastically increase your child support award.
Failing To Understand How Child Support Is Determined In Maryland
In the Maryland Child Support guidelines, the court takes into consideration the number of overnights your child has with your partner. The number of overnights can drastically increase or decrease your child support, and if that’s the case, you need to make sure you understand how many overnights you have with your children as well as the impact of those overnights on your overall child support award.
Contact An Experienced Maryland Divorce Attorney Today For Your Child Support Modification Hearing In Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, Maryland
If you have any questions about mistakes in child support establishment or modification hearings or other issues related to domestic related matters in Maryland, please feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel, please also feel free to give me a call at (301) 778 995 to speak with an attorney today.
