Child Support

There are aspects of everyone's job that they don't like. For me, number one on my list has got to be child support work. I do it only when an existing client has a problem and wants my help particularly. Its depressing, and always, always makes me think about how miserable I would be without my wife and child.

Fortunately, there are plenty of attorneys out there who don't mind this type of work, and the rules about what happens, and who owes what for child support, are pretty clear.

The parent who lives with the child is known under the law as the "custodial parent" of the child - and has the primary responsibility for caring for the child and meeting his or her daily needs. The other parent - the "non-custodial parent" - owes child support, and owes it until the child is at least 18, and possibly until the child is 21.

How much is owed depends on how much the non-custodial parent makes in salary and other income during the year. Texas law provides for standard orders to be entered unless the court can be convinced otherwise, which is pretty hard to do. For child support obligations, the rules are these: the non-custodial parent owes 20% of net income for support of one child, 25% for support of two children, 30% for support of three children, 35% for support of four children, and 40% for five or more children.

Note that the rules speak of children that the non-custodial parent is actually providing support for. In the classic "deadbeat dad" situation, there may be several children by different mothers that the father is providing no support to at all: in this situation, if one of the mothers seeks child support, the father will owe the full 20% of his income, and gets no credit (nor should he) for the other children he has abandoned.

The law provides that if a parent has to be sued for child support - by either the State or by the custodial parent - and the court finds that child support is owed, then the costs of the suit (including the attorneys' fees of both sides) are paid by the parent who owes the support.

And the case stays open until the child reaches the age of either 18 or 21. If the parent who owes support gets a raise or other improvement in income, the court can (and will) order an increase in monthly child support obligations. Likewise, if the parent owing support loses his job, or gets ordered to pay support for another child, the court can and will order a reduction in monthly payments.

The payments themselves are typically ordered withheld from paychecks and paid directly to a child support office of the State or a county - and the government is thus able to keep track of whether the payments are being made.

All of this, of course, works best when the parent who owes the support has a job and an employer, as well as a regular address. When the parent of a child is an irresponsible loser, child support requirements are of no help - you cannot get money from someone that has none.

And that is depressing, too. Like other aspects of family law disputes, it always seems to be the children that lose, while their parents often escape the consequences of their selfishness and irresponsibility.