A few years ago, I was in a pretty serious car accident. During the aftermath, I became really familiar with a lot of different types of lawyers. I worked with personal injury lawyers, insurance lawyers, and many others. Perhaps the most important, though, was the estate planning lawyer. I was really young, and neither my wife or I had thought about starting a will. But the accident kind of scared us into it. What would happen if one of us were to die? Even when still in the hospital, I was working with the lawyer to draw up a will. Now, I have some peace and security about what the future will be like if something should happen to me. And I have a lot of experience working with various types of lawyers! The accident was kind of a blessing in disguise in that way.
If you are divorced and have custody of the kids, you may decide to ask the court for a modification of your child support at some point in life. Modifying the child support simply means changing the amount your ex-spouse is paying you, and this is not generally a simple process. If this is something you are considering, you should know the following things about this subject.
You cannot simply ask for a modification whenever you feel like it
The first thing to understand is that modifications are not things you can just request whenever you feel like it. Instead, there are rules and limits in place in each state that affect how often you can request a modification. It is important, too, that you have a good reason to request the court to reconsider the child support amount in your case, and typically this means that there must be some type of major change in circumstance with one or both spouses. In many cases, the change in circumstance refers to a job change where one spouse is making a lot more money than he or she was before. If this happens, you could ask the court to recalculate the amount to reflect this increase in earnings.
You must file a motion to have it reconsidered
Secondly, in order to change the support amount that your ex-spouse is currently paying, you must get a court order, and this begins with filing a motion for child support modification. Once you file this, you will receive a court date. At this court date, you will be asked why you are requesting the modification, and the judge will then review all the information provided in order to make a decision on the case.
You will likely win if your ex-spouse does not appear
One important thing to know is that if your ex-spouse does not appear at this court hearing, there is a good chance the judge will rule in your favor, as long as you have a valid reason for requesting this. If your ex does not appear, he or she would not have a way to fight the modification, and the judge would not look favorably on that person anyhow for failing to appear.
You can ask for a child support modification on your own, but it is much easier and typically more successful when you hire a divorce lawyer for help with this issue. You can hire the lawyer you used for your divorce or you can choose a different one for help with this issue.
Share11 September 2019
