Child support nightmare

[gberry]

My ex wife and I signed an agreed order 3 years ago that we both would have equal time sharing of our daughter. The agreement included that neither pays CS to the other, she claims her on her taxes every year and we each pay 50/50 for all medical and extra curricular activities and school expenses. Just recently she filed a motion with the court to have the equal time sharing discontinued. We went to court and before the judge even addressed the custody issue she stated that we needed to establish some child support obligation because it is the law that one parent must pay child support and the agreed order would no longer do. (We live in KY) The judge then addressed the equal time sharing issue and she allowed me to keep my time sharing but gave my ex wife first right of refusal meaning that if I was working overtime or away from my daughter more that 2 hours after work that I have to call my ex wife and give her the opportunity to come and pick her up and then go and get my daughter when I get home. She told my ex wife's attorney and my attorney to work up a CS work sheet and set another court date. My ex wife and I both submitted our income information and I make $2400 a month and my ex makes $ 4900 a month. We went back to court and the judge ordered based on the worksheets that I have to pay $411 a month in CS to my ex wife. How come I am the one that owes the obligation when she makes more money and we each have our daughter equal amounts of time? I pay for everything she needs the 2 sometimes 3 weeks out of the month that I have her. I want to appeal this decision but I have been told it is expensive to do so. What are my chances of an appeal going in my favor? My ex wife makes $400 more a week than I do and I now have to pay her $400 a month. I don't understand. To make matters worse my ex wife has since approached me and told me that she would be willing to drop the CS if I would agree to giving her back sole and primary custody of our daughter like she wanted in the first place. I don't want to give up my time with my daughter but I am struggling financially as it is and paying her $411 a month will take away from what I can provide my daughter when she is with me. How can she just drop a CS order? It was my understanding when this all started that someone has a CS obligation. Please give me some advice. It is such a mess!

 

[Duranie]

Did you ask for the tax credit since you will be paying CS? Have you seen an attorney to talk about appealing this? Have you read the KY guidelines to see if there is a parenting time discount?

 

[irish223]

Although you share parenting time, your ex may be considered the primary residential. It appears that's the norm in Kentucky. It is also the norm that your child support obligation as NCP is 20%. Apparently, Kentucky courts do not normally adjust for parenting time.

You should consider appealing the decision. I believe there is a form for consideration of deviation from the guidelines, but you will absolutely need an attorney for this. There was a case appealed last year in which the father had been ordered to pay the mother the standard obligation, despite the fact that they shared parenting time equally and their incomes were about equal. Also, neither had ever been declared the CP or primary residential parent. The father appealed and won. Here are 2 links to the case:

http://www.today.com/view/plattner-...ing-where-parents-have-equal-income/id-25212/

http://162.114.92.72/COA/2005-CA-002525.pdf

Good luck. You're stuck in an unfair situation, and I hope you can fix it.

(btw, just to be clear, this only applies if your ex's income is $4900, and not the income of your ex and her new husband/boyfriend/whatever.)

 

[DadinDivorce]

Good luck on this. I'm about to get into a similar situation because NY Child Support law is ancient and not remotely based on anything in reality. Just a few miles away is New Jersey, and their support calculations do take parenting time into account for payments.