Floral City Child Support
As ensured in Florida family law, child support payments are legally required, so the children’s welfare is taken care of despite the absence of a complete family under one roof. So whether you want to establish, modify, or enforce child support arrangements, Trinity Family Law can provide high-quality legal assistance for an efficient and favorable legal proceeding.
Our team of Floral City child support lawyers is well-versed in the guidelines for establishing, calculating, and enforcing child support payments in Florida. We can represent you before the court whether you are the parent requesting child support or the one being required to pay it. Our goal, in the end, is to secure your child’s basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothes, medical care, and education.
If you decide to work with us, our professional lawyers will guide you on the rules and how the court usually works in cases like yours. We’ll also inform you of all the variables that come into play as the judge decides on how the child support will be decided, including both parents’ income, current custody arrangement, visitation schedules, and the needs of the child or children involved.
Regardless of your specific situation, our Floral City child support lawyers will present your case in a compelling way to ensure that the final payment amount will be fair to both parents and adequate for your child’s needs.
Call Trinity Family Law today at (352) 292-1703 for your Free Consultation with a Floral City Child Support lawyer!
Child Support Calculation
The Florida child support statutes enforce a uniform way of calculating child support throughout Florida. The overall amount will correspond to each of the parent’s net income and the time each of them spends with the kid. This means that if you’re the paying parent, you’ll pay a higher amount if you have a higher net income. You’re more likely to pay more if you spend less time with your children as well.
To give you a clearer idea, the following information will be considered to accurately calculate the fair amount of child support needed to be paid:
- The number of children in need and eligible for child support
- The monthly net income of each parent
- Childcare costs that are shouldered by each parent
- Health insurance payments spent by each parent
- Dental/Vision insurance payments spent by each parent
- Other support obligation imposed by the court that is being paid by each parent
Keep in mind that child support is your kid’s right. You and the other parent cannot just negotiate on the amount and expect the court to approve it. The judge will decide on the amount that will serve the best interest of your child, ensuring that all their needs will be adequately provided by both parents.
Child Support Enforcement
In the ideal scenario, the noncustodial or paying parent will pay the right amount of child support on time and in full. However, there’s a chance that the noncustodial parent would intentionally avoid or fall behind in giving payments. When this happens, our Floral City child support lawyers can help you file an enforcement action before the court.
Florida has very strict rules when it comes to ensuring that noncustodial parents follow the established child support arrangements. The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) is the primary public agency that facilitates child support enforcement activities, while the Clerk’s Office is the one responsible for sending Notices of Delinquency when the noncustodial parent fails to pay the child support 15 days after its due.
Motion for Civil Contempt
The most common way to remediate the situation when the noncustodial parent violates the child support order is by filing a Motion for Civil Contempt. This written request will tell the court that a valid child support order was put in place and that the noncustodial parent failed to pay on time or in full.
We can file the motion on your behalf and prove the following circumstances to convince the court that the noncustodial parent is in contempt of the child support order:
- There is an established valid child support order that is approved and signed by a judge.
- The noncustodial parent failed to follow the terms indicated in the child support order.
- The noncustodial parent didn’t pay the child support despite having the capacity to do so.
Once the motion has been filed, both parents are required to attend the hearing. If the judge determines that the noncustodial parent is in contempt, an order will be issued stating how and when the overdue support will be paid. Other penalties can also be imposed by the judge, such as fines and jail time.
Court Orders for Child Support Enforcement
Depending on your specific situation, the judge can issue a court order specifying the appropriate ways of collecting overdue and future child support payments. The court order can do the following:
- Establish a payment plan that the noncustodial parent has to follow
- Withhold income from the noncustodial parent’s paychecks
- Intercept state and federal tax refunds if the total owed amount is $500 or more
- Intercept lottery winnings that are more than $600
- Directly take money from the noncustodial parent’s financial accounts if $600 or 4 months’ worth of child support is owed.
- Place liens and force the sale of vehicles if the owed amount is $600 or more.
- Place liens and order the sale of real estate properties and other personal properties.
- Seize and sell the noncustodial parent’s abandoned or unclaimed property
- Intercept worker’s compensation fund owed to the noncustodial parent.
- Incarcerate the noncustodial parent for up to a year or until the overdue child support is paid.
- Order the noncustodial parent to reimburse the custodial parent’s expenses related to filing the contempt motion, including attorney’s fees, witness costs, and travel expenses
Florida Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Services
Additionally, the following services can be executed by the CSE to help you enforce an established child support order:
- Financial Institution Date Match program – CSE will check all financial records (e.g., bank accounts and money market accounts) to look for funds that the noncustodial parent could use for child support payments.
- Driving privilege revocation – Unless the noncustodial parent pays the overdue support or agrees to a payment plan, the Department of Motor Vehicles can suspend their driver’s license and car registrations.
- Professional license and certificate suspension – The noncustodial parent’s professional, occupational, and recreational licenses can be suspended until they pay the overdue support or agrees to a payment plan.
Child Support Modification
No child support order in Florida can be designated as unmodifiable, so whenever your or the other parent’s situation changes, you can always request a modification in the child support order before the court. As long as the modification will result in at least a $50 or 15% (whichever is greater) difference in the support amount, the established order can always be modified under the Florida child support law.
Our Floral City, FL child support lawyers at Trinity Family Law can help you file the petition for modification and achieve a favorable order. Depending on your particular case, we will prove the following significant changes in your or the other parent’s situation so the appropriate modification will be approved:
- Decrease or loss of income of the noncustodial or paying parent
- Increase in income of the custodial or receiving parent
- Other child support obligations for children from other marriages/relationships ordered by the court from the noncustodial parent
- Changes in payroll taxes of the parent
- Increase or decrease in the child’s health insurance payments
- Increase or decrease in either parent’s health insurance payments
- Increase in the cost of living
- Medical emergencies of the child or either parent, resulting in loss of income or capacity to take care of the child.
Regardless of the specific change in your situation, however, rest assured that our child support lawyer will help you reach a fair amount in the modification of the payment arrangements. We will ensure that as much as the needs of the child will be well provided for, each parent will also be treated fairly and given reasonable responsibilities.
Let’s Talk Now – Free Consultation
At Trinity Family Law, we aim to legally protect our client’s rights as well as those of their children. So if you want to ensure that your child is receiving a fair amount of financial support from their other parent, or that you are not paying more than what is truly necessary, our legal assistance will be of great help.
We can help you establish, enforce, or modify the child support order for your child’s best interests. We’ll make sure that every financial and circumstantial detail will be taken into account as the court decides the amount of support needed, ensuring that the resulting order will be fair to both parents and children involved.
Call Trinity Family Law today at (352) 292-1703 for your Free Consultation with a Floral City Child Support lawyer!