I’ve had a lot of prospective clients ask me why they should bother hiring an attorney for their case when the only issue is child support. If it’s just done based on the Child Support Guidelines, why can’t someone do it themselves?

The short answer: figuring out the numbers to plug in can be extremely complicated.

Things like imputed income, small business valuations, rental income, underemployment, stipends, company reimbursement, day care expenses — all of this things can be huge in determining the amount of support owed under the guidelines. For example, a new opinion out from the Court of Appeals points out just some of the factors that are involved in determining the income amounts for a child support worksheet. IN RE: GRACE N. deals with a huge number of these, from whether the attorney spouse was intentionally underemployed, whether a nanny is a reasonable work related child care expense, and even how much rental income should be imputed to a parent who co-owned a property with third parties. You can read the full opinion here as a great example of just why it is so important to have an attorney represent you when child support is a contested issue.

For the full link: https://www.tba.org/sites/default/files/gracen_COR_061015.pdf