Family Law Cases in Texas: Initiating a Child Support Case

If you have need a best suitable service your Family Law experience, Family Law Cases in Texas: Initiating a Child Support Case with the great process!

Houston Divorce Attorney: If you are wanting to begin a family law case involving child support matters it is recommended that you contact an attorney before doing so. I know- shock of the century- a family law attorney is recommending that you hire a family law attorney.

Trust me on this one, though, Child Support cases are ones that require an experienced hand. The investment you make in your attorney can pale in comparison when looking at your potential gains in support or savings in support depending upon if you are the parent who will receive or pay child support.

The initial filing in a child support case is called a Suit Affecting the Parent Child Relationship. There will be two other parties to your SAPCR– the other parent as well as the Attorney General of Texas. The Attorney General needs to be notified whenever you are attempting to modify the amount of child support being paid.

Your being able to hire an attorney to file this SAPCR is an advantage over going about it yourself or contacting the Attorney General. First and foremost, your attorney can often work your case more efficiently than one of the attorneys for the Attorney General’s office thereby hastening the pace with which your case resolves itself. Often times a quick mediation set up at the beginning of a case can allow you to complete the process with relatively little spent on attorney’s fees.

The other advantage to hiring an attorney to handle your SAPCR related to child support is that you can also work on modifying issues related to conservatorship, possession, access or visitation in the same suit. The Attorney General would focus entirely on child support and would likely require you to file a second SAPCR.

CHILD SUPPORT CALCULATION IN TEXAS

Houston Family Lawyer: If you are in a position where you are likely to have to pay child support, either in a SAPCR or divorce case, this section will be relevant for you. Your net income and the number of children that you have a duty to support are what goes into the calculation for child support. Children that are both before the court in the present child support case as well as other children for whom you owe a duty to support that are not presently before the court.

For the most part, child support calculations are based on the guideline percentages that are laid out in the Texas Family Code. For a basic rundown of the calculation, you will want to deduct from your monthly pay federal taxes, social security and the health insurance that you pay towards your children.

Once those items are removed from your income, a percentage will be applied against your net resources in order to come up with the total monthly child support obligation. For one child multiple 20 percent against your net monthly income. Two children are 25 percent on up to at most 50 percent for each corresponding child. The highest percentage of your income on a monthly basis that can go towards child support is 50 percent.

Other children not before the court will offset the amount that you have to pay to children who are involved in the present case. For high-income earners only the first $8,550 of your monthly income counts for these calculation purposes. If your child has proven needs that require additional sums of child support the guideline percentages may not be utilized.

FAILURE TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT

Divorce Lawyer Houston: Once your child support obligation is calculated it is an amount that you are ordered to pay without exception. This means that if you have a job where your income fluctuates (real estate agent, small businessperson, etc.) there are no protections built in to account for your not earning a consistent income throughout the year. If this describes your situation it is recommended that you plan ahead by either securing a part-time job to fill in the gaps or by simply saving money and anticipating these fluctuations. Either way, it is not a defense to the failure to pay child support to tell a judge that your income is inconsistent.

Likewise, if you simply refuse to pay child support as ordered on a timely basis the parent to whom the child support is owed can go back to the court that rendered the order and seek an enforcement of your obligation to pay support. That parent can ask the judge to hold you in contempt of court and can even seek jail time as a possible recourse to encourage your payment of child support. As touched on briefly at the outset of this blog post if you have not been paid timely support you may hire an attorney to file this enforcement or can contact the Office of the Attorney General.

MODIFICATION OF A PRIOR COURT ORDER

Houston Divorce: Asking a court to adjust the amount of child support that you either have to pay or that you have been ordered to receive means filing a modification suit. You are basically asking the court to take the prior order it rendered and change it in some way based on a substantial change in circumstances. Child support, conservatorship, possession, access, and visitation are all issues that are covered by this sort of lawsuit.

The material and substantial change in circumstances must have occurred since the signing of the prior court order. If the other parent moved away from their prior place of residence with your child and therefore caused you to incur additional sums of money in travel costs in order to exercise your right to visitation with your child then that material and substantial change in circumstances. Likewise, if your ex-spouse has abused your child or engaged in some other illegal behavior in the home then this too would qualify as a material and substantial change in circumstances.

MODIFYING CUSTODY, POSSESSION AND/OR ACCESS

First and foremost any requested modification must be shown to be in the best interests of your child … Continue Reading