Alpine Support: Scaling the Heights of Child Support in Colorado | Episode 201

Dive into the complexities of child support with Ryan Kalamaya and Amy Goscha where they unpack the essentials of child support, differentiating it from spousal maintenance, and guiding you through its determination process, highlighting the crucial factors involved.

Key Highlights:

- Introduction to Child Support:
  - Explained as a means to cover the costs associated with raising children, encompassing everything from daily needs to educational expenses.
  - Discussion on the confusion between spousal maintenance and child support, clarifying its purpose and calculation basis.

- Determining Child Support:
  - Insight into Colorado's child support worksheet and the factors affecting child support calculations, such as gross income, parenting time, and health insurance contributions.
  - Emphasis on the importance of understanding gross vs. net income and how various expenses and credits are factored into the child support calculation.

Important Factors and Disputes:

- Income Considerations:
  - Detailed discussion on how income is defined and disputed, including overtime, self-employment income, and non-traditional income sources.
  - Exploration of circumstances that might lead to income imputation and the impact of remarriage on child support calculations.

- Extracurricular and Educational Expenses:
  - How extracurricular activities and private schooling decisions can influence child support, stressing the importance of a child’s historical lifestyle.
 
- Modification and Enforcement of Child Support:
  - Guidance on how child support can be modified due to significant changes in financial circumstances, emphasizing the need for documentation and legal processes.
  - Strategies for enforcing child support payments, including motions for contempt, wage garnishments, and the role of Child Support Enforcement agencies.

Listener Engagement and Resources:

📞  Connect with us: 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kalamayagoscha 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kalamaya-goscha/ 
• Phone: 970.315.2365 
• Email: info@kalamaya.law

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone navigating the intricacies of child support, offering valuable insights into its determination, modification, and enforcement.

What is Divorce at Altitude?

Ryan Kalamaya and Amy Goscha provide tips and recommendations on issues related to divorce, separation, and co-parenting in Colorado. Ryan and Amy are the founding partners of an innovative and ambitious law firm, Kalamaya | Goscha, that pushes the boundaries to discover new frontiers in family law, personal injuries, and criminal defense in Colorado.

To subscribe to Divorce at Altitude, click here and select your favorite podcast player. To subscribe to Kalamaya | Goscha's YouTube channel where many of the episodes will be posted as videos, click here. If you have additional questions or would like to speak to one of our attorneys, give us a call at 970-429-5784 or email us at info@kalamaya.law.

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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS ON THIS PODCAST IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE OR AREA TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY OF THESE ISSUES.

Transcript

Amy Goscha: 0:03

Hey everyone. I'm Ryan Kalamaya. And I'm Amy Goscha. Welcome to the Divorce at Altittude, a podcast on Colorado family law. Divorce is not easy. It really sucks. Trust me, I know. Besides being an experienced Divorce attorney, I'm also a Divorce client. Whether you or someone considering Divorce or a fellow family law attorney, listen in for weekly tips and insight into topics related to Divorce co-parenting. And separation in Colorado.

Ryan Kalamaya: 0:35

Welcome back to another episode of Divorce at Altitude. This week, we are talking about child support. And I am joined by my esteemed co host Amy Goscha. Amy can you give our listeners, just a high level view on child support and what we're going to be getting into today?

Amy Goscha: 0:55

Sure. When people come to us and they have children, they say, what is involved with. What kind of support am I going to get? There's a confusion between spousal maintenance or alimony and then child support. So we're talking about the child support. Topic today which in Colorado, we have a formula and we have a statute, but it's very long. It's very complicated and there's constantly changes. So we're hoping to explain kind of high level child support and what goes into it. So listeners understand today.

Ryan Kalamaya: 1:29

Yeah, and the way that I explain it to clients to be to begin with is that child support is supposed to help pay for kids. I haven't, at the time of those recording, I have a nine and seven year old, we are looking at doing a trip to Disneyland and my eyes are bulging at the cost of what a trip to Disneyland costs. But, there's also just the milk in the fridge, the food on the table, the driving back and forth between, various playdates and, sporting events and school and kids just cost money. And how do you determine. The amount that kids cost and then how between Eric and Melanie, our hypothetical divorce clients, how do we figure out the level of support? Amy, for listeners that don't really understand or know, what are the kind of factors, whether it be parenting time and income, what are the kind of high level factors that go into child support and how it's determined?

Amy Goscha: 2:38

Yeah, so for me, and I think some other clients I try to explain, I say, okay, so in Colorado, we have a child support worksheet and there's various factors that go into it to essentially calculate it. So the first factor that I look at is parties income. So the On the worksheet, you're going to say, okay, what is mom's income? Gross income? What is dad's gross income? And then also you're going to look at there are, there's going to be some or changes depending on, at least right now, on Overnights. So when we're talking about overnights in a year do you, does each parent have the child? So if it's an equal parenting time schedule, then each parent is going to have 182. 5. Night, so that's another input. Other inputs are who covers the children for health insurance. You get a credit on the child support worksheet for the children's portion of health insurance cost. There are some other inputs on there, such as, extraordinary will get into what goes on the worksheet and what doesn't, but there are some credits that get taken into. Account also, if you have a child from a previous marriage, like a child, that's not a not like a non joint child, you get a credit for that. Essentially what the child support commission did is they did research. For families all over the nation, but in Colorado to say how much. At these different income levels, how much does it cost to raise if you have one child, two child, two children, three children and so that's where the research is based off of, and then the inputs calculate essentially what the child support amount should be paid from either mom to dad or dad to mom.

Ryan Kalamaya: 4:22

So Amy, with your son, they, they determine how much it costs to have, heat and utilities, the additional electricity, the housing the extra room or space in your house compared to, my son, and then, determines a baseline level in terms of the cost with, medicine and food and other things. Everything that goes in and then there's a pie drawing exercise that that, and this is not actually, this is what the child support worksheet is based on. And then, I think it's important point because a lot of people are always, surprised it's gross income. So that's before taxes you determine maintenance before child support. So if Eric is paying Melanie. 5, 000 a month in alimony or maintenance, then what happens is that Eric's income will be axed, but then it will be reduced by the 5, 000 per month. And then Melanie's and, we've got episodes on potential income and there can be, we're not going to get into there's so many disputes about what Eric's income is and, if he's self employed and if he's getting money from gifts from family or trusts, that is beyond really what we're talking about here. We will have other episodes on that, but then Melanie, whatever her income is or potential income, if she's voluntary, voluntarily underemployed, then you'll have an addition of 5, 000 per month, because that's how much she receives in maintenance. But, as you said if Eric has a. child from another marriage or another relationship, then he has those costs that, that are going to be factored in. And really what we're going into is, if both parties, I think the easiest example for people to understand is if Eric and Melanie make the same income and they have equal parenting time, then there will be no child support in that circumstance. Because, they both, are going to absorb these costs equally on their own, and they are an equal financial footing. But as you said, health insurance, there's always gonna be one parent, generally speaking, that's going to pay the health insurance. So if the children's portion of that health insurance is 500 a month and Eric pays for it, then Melanie will owe Eric 250. month in child support, but the numbers are never just, the same income, the same everything. And that's where you really get into, but the, if Eric has Johnny more parenting time, then he's going to have more of those costs, which is where the overnights come in. And Amy, have you ever had a case in which one. parent, particularly the dad, is asking for equal parenting time because he's concerned about child support.

Amy Goscha: 7:22

Yeah. Everyone is concerned and like it's a hard thing because you never want to negotiate parenting time related to child support, but it all is interconnected. So I can understand why. A parent is concerned about that but it can create disputes over parenting time because the overnights are calculated or are counted on the child support worksheet.

Ryan Kalamaya: 7:48

Yeah. And when I give that example, I don't, I think people generally I am a divorce lawyer and can be skeptical, but I do believe in, in, people and their intentions and especially when it comes to their kids. I, I think that, the vast majority of cases, people are just trying to do the best thing for their kids and they're not really being, driven by, financials, but it does matter and, there's different examples of, it's not necessarily all about overnights. There are exceptions or the ability for a court to deviate from what the guidelines, suggest, but Amy. For you mentioned that it's based on a worksheet. Do you see that worksheet applying in a million dollar per year income scenario between Eric and Melanie Wolfe?

Amy Goscha: 8:41

No, because It's the worksheet. It has a cap.

Ryan Kalamaya: 8:46

Yes, Amy, there is a cap. There's a case in intermarriage of Betcher in which the court is provided some guidance on what happens in above the worksheet scenarios. I frequently deal with these up in the mountains and with, people that make a substantial amount of money and, really what you're looking at is what the case is. Children's lifestyle was during the marriage and if they flew private, if they went to, expensive vacations, if they did, they enjoyed a very comfortable arguably lavish lifestyle. Then, the child support is going to reflect that and that can matter for a premarital agreements. One thing I'll just as an aside, premarital agreements can never kind of control what happens on a child support. We'll talk about modification down the road, you can't set in a premarital agreement, but there could be something in the premarital agreement that results in a really disproportionate, financial exit for Eric and Melanie. After the divorce and child support is going to take that into consideration. But you mentioned, that there's a deduction for health insurance how our child care costs and who pays for them as well as the extracurricular or extraordinary. Medical expenses. How, Amy, are those addressed in the context of child support?

Amy Goscha: 10:08

If it's work related child care and it's not something that varies, it's always a decision as a lawyer or as a party to say are we going to put this fixed expense on the child support worksheet and is it going to get paid by the other parent their portion through the child support worksheet or is it going to be off of the child support worksheet and are we going to just split it? Pro rata to income, or however the parenting plan or separation agreement defines, splitting those expenses. Is it going to be split off the worksheet, or are we going to put something, assign something on the worksheet?

Ryan Kalamaya: 10:43

Yeah, and I think people, two examples. So if there's a child that's going to daycare and that's a fairly consistent, preschool, it's a thousand dollars a month and it's that amount every month, then the parties have a have a decision. If they put it on the child support worksheet and Eric pays for it, then that is going to reduce the amount of child support that he would owe that Melanie or result in Melanie owing him. And there's just this reimbursement and it's baked into the amount that is paid per month. The other option is if it's off the worksheet. So there's not a thousand dollar amount on that worksheet, which is probably the. Better scenario when those costs in particular, they go up and down. Medical expenses, if a child has diabetes, there's some predictability about, how much are you going to hit your deductible every year? But that's going to be You know, in stark contrast to going to the ER, hopefully they're not going to the ER and having that deductible or that extraordinary cost every time. But when it comes up, then you can have an agreement on if there's maintenance, then usually that results in a 60 40 split. So Eric usually will have 60 percent of the responsibility if that child care is 1, 000, then he'll pay the child care provider 600, and then Melanie will pay 400. And you can have agreements on, 50 50, 60 so that if something comes up, then they You know, we'll pay their respective share. And that's what, Amy, you mean by the pro rata share.

Amy Goscha: 12:30

Yeah, exactly. Besides inputs, I think, and it's probably in the imputation of income episode, but people should be aware that if you have a child that's 24 months. or younger, you cannot, what's called, assign a parent an income. And we'll get further into that. But that is something that is important. And one question, I'm sure you get this a lot too Ryan, is people ask okay, I'm paying my ex spouse or co parent child support. Shouldn't that cover everything? And so I think, You know people do have confusion about what does, child support cover. And I always explain to people you, each party has a basic obligation to support their children, and because the incomes are different in these various inputs that we're talking about, that's what it covers to equal the playing, the financial playing field for the children in each household. And then there's these other things. So I do think that can be confusing for people.

Ryan Kalamaya: 13:28

Yeah and for sure, the number one dispute, there can be disputes over how many overnights it actually surprises me Amy, in, in terms of, I have had, disagreements with attorneys about what the number of overnights are that go on the worksheet. And one, we use custody exchange oftentimes, and when you plug it in, they, it will tell you what the number of overnights in that software, but there can be disagreements about, okay, vacations, or if there's a 60, 40 agreement on parenting time, but then they have equal vacations that can result in some disagreements on the number of overnights, but set that aside, it's all about the incomes. People we will frequently. Litigate what a parent's income is. And like I said, there's not there's not enough time for us to really dive in on all the potential issues involved with income. The same disputes often arise when it comes to maintenance when we're first determining, maintenance. those sorts of disputes. But Amy, can you give a kind of a high level view on Income and how child support views income and what kind of some example of examples of disputes can come up when it results in differing child support amounts.

Amy Goscha: 14:53

Yeah, so we, we explained how it's based off of gross income, but then the question is what is a parent's gross income? If a parent is, a W 2 employee it might be a little bit more simple, but there could be a W 2 employee that was You know works more hours or gets overtime. An example would be if it's not, if the overtime is not a condition of their employment, then that overtime is not included when you determine child support. Another thing that's confusing is that it's not just your adjusted gross income on your tax return. If you have self employed Essentially, it's gross receipts. Minus reasonable and necessary business expenses. So then you have to go through and figure out what are the reasonable necessary business expenses. What you deduct on a tax return might not be exactly considered a reasonable necessary expense. Categories we look at are, personal expenses that are essentially run as business expenses. And so those can be added back in. You also have the issue of. Maybe a parent was the earner and the other parent stayed home and hasn't worked in a while. If you're getting divorced, one parent's getting back into the workforce, and there's this question of what, how much time should it take, how much can this person make, and how much time is it going to take them to make that? And what income amount should you put? Potential income on the Child Support Worksheet. One change that happened in 2023 that's related to that is that when you're looking at what we called imputing income, which means trying to figure out what a person's income is who hasn't worked in a while in this scenario. We have some more guidance within the Child Support Guide or statute that says a party needs to be assigned income for at least 32 weeks. 32 hours per week for 50 hours or 50 weeks a year. So there is some, determination or guidance as to what's considered full time. I'm sure Ryan, you can think of some more examples, but those are the top of mind that I can think of.

Ryan Kalamaya: 17:06

Yeah, the ordinary and necessary expenses on someone that's self employed, it, that results in just a lot of disputes because someone could put on their tax return and they'll expense a business expense for their cell phone and that cell phone will be it's certainly used for the business, but then there's also the, and so often we, experts come involved and they'll say, 20 percent and they'll add back 20 percent of the cell phone bill. And those issues certainly come up then. There's trust income, there's gift income, so if a party gets, money from a trust or they're gifted money, that may not be taxable, it may not even show up on the tax return, it may not count, for taxable income, but it can certainly account for child support. I think the, over, the takeaway for people is that gross income when it comes to child support is. Really broad, and it's if you get any money, the court is likely going to consider that as income for child support. The bonus is if your income varies We're going to have specific kind of episodes and how to episodes that I've been doing there can be disputes if a realtor, for example if Eric Wolf is a realtor and he makes a million dollars one year and then 200, 000 the next, and then 300, 000 the following year, do you, could you do a three year, straight line average? Do you use a weighted average? Do you look at five years? There can be a lot of disputes on what people's income is. The other thing before we move on to modification and enforcement of child support is that the extracurricular activities and the, some of the. private school. We've referenced that before. We talked about it in our decision making. They can really drive child support. And Eric could make, for example, a substantial amount more than Melanie. But if he is paying for it. Ski racing or ice skating or hockey or private school it could, the money could then go to the child's private school or ski program instead of Melanie and that, Melanie does not realize that during the marriage but it, there's a dispute on Whether or not that should be included as a deduction, like you said, Amy. And there's some differing, case law. It needs to be reasonable those costs. And there can be, there's it's a matter of whether there's been a history. There's case in marriage of Laughlin marriage of Payon in terms of if there's been a historical. A track record of a child going to private school, then, that's going to be one thing. If it's not all of a sudden getting a new thing. And the idea is that Eric, he may say, I don't want to give any money to Melanie. Instead. I want it to go directly to, a child. The other kind of things that I'll mention are there are. Factors that the court can use as a deviation. And that would be, you referenced overtime. If a parent historically earned overtime, then, that could be considered. The one thing I've also seen fairly frequently, especially up in the mountains, Is that if there's a non income producing asset, the court can take that into consideration in deviating from the child support worksheet. So the child support worksheet could say X, and the court says, I'm going to either go high or low based on this, the, this deviation and, the having a, a 5 million house or a 10, 000, 000 house. 10 million dollar house, which we see in the mountains that is a non income producing asset. And the court can say, listen, you've got a 10 million dollar house. It, that is unusual. And you, I'm going to either impute money because you could have used some of that money to invest in, And get a return on your investment and generate some income. So the court can deviate in that circumstance. The other circumstance that I'll mention about deviation is that if there is a party that has a lot of daytime parenting time and may not have overnights, then that also can be considered because the court isn't just going to look at just the number of overnights, but child support can be really complex. It can result in a lot of disputes. And the, the other kind of unfortunate takeaway is that it can't be set in stone. So Amy, can you talk about modification and then we'll, finally conclude with enforcement, but what do you tell people in terms of, you're going through divorce, Erica, Melanie, and this is how much child support is and then what's the kind of caveat or explanation you give Amy on child support being set in stone for the rest of the children's lives?

Amy Goscha: 22:08

That it's not. That essentially at any time a party can show that there's been a 10 percent increase or decrease in the overall obligation amount, not just 10 percent increase or decrease in gross income of a parent that it can be modified. I also tell people, though, sometimes it's very, it's more expensive to go through the litigation to modify it. So you have to really do a cost benefit analysis when you're looking at modifying child support. And the one thing that I don't think we mentioned is that in Colorado, Child support is through age 19, and parenting time is through age 18, and there's this gap where kids go to college, and am I paying child support? I'm paying for college tuition. So those issues also come up, but that's just high level, and then there's certain circumstances where, If parents mutually agree to change parenting time and it depends on if one parent had the majority of the time and then they switch it to the other parent having the majority of the time, a parent can then ask for a court to modify it, what's called retroactively, to the date of that agreement. Otherwise, child support modification is only from the date that you file a motion.

Ryan Kalamaya: 23:26

Yeah, I saw this a lot when I started cutting my teeth in 2010 with family law cases. I represent a lot of, or was involved in a lot of cases where developers or real estate brokers or other people in the great recession was resulting in, they really impacted real estate in particular. And so these people, They had agreed to, in the kind of go years of 2006 and 2007, they had agreed to these, really high amounts on child support and then they had no income. And so they said understandably so saying I haven't been working for a year. Doesn't child support. It should be modified from when I lost my job and under 1410. 122, that is not how it works. The only exception is if there is a change in the physical care. So if Johnny moves from Eric's house to Melanie's house. And there's a disproportionate, amount of parenting time that is the only basis. Otherwise, it is based on when there is a motion that's filed Amy, I'll ask you about the mechanics of how Eric or Melanie know about that change of circumstances, but. What happens is you attorneys will sometimes file a motion and just preserve that date. They understand there's going to be kind of mediation. But, 100 percent agrees that there needs to be a change in circumstances that is substantial and continuing. I remember we hosted a town hall with. The judges in the fifth judicial district, right in the, height of COVID. And they, the judges in Eagle and Summit County were saying, we're seeing a ton of motions to modify child support, but we don't know if this is continuing. And indeed, for people that don't remember, there's definitely people were disproportionately impacted. So restaurant servers or restaurant owners, they, yes they Lowell, because their restaurants were closed, but a lot of restaurants made a lot more money afterwards, it was just a matter of, is this continuing and is the substantial, the kind of test is, it does, you're going to result in that 10%. But Amy, what, can you maybe comment a little bit on, how do people know after a divorce, if there has been a change? so much.

Amy Goscha: 25:44

And there's usually a provision in the tax, or in the separation agreement that says that parties exchange tax returns on a yearly basis, or there might be some language, and this is probably best practice there should be some language that says if a party is changing jobs, that they provide the new proof of income and I believe there is more language now in the child support statute that talks about that. Getting financial documentation as well, which it wasn't in there before, but I'm pretty sure it's in there now.

Ryan Kalamaya: 26:17

Yeah. I think that just realistically when Johnny comes home and he says, I'm. Going on all these trips with Eric and is doing these various, things then, Melanie has a, is a better idea of, like a general idea of how Eric is doing and financially, but yeah, most of the time there's going to be an exchange of. Any annual change in May, tax seasons in, in, in April, if Eric's on the extended basis, then there can be just this general change of W2 or profit loss, or, the kind of basic tax documents Eric or Amy, what happens if Eric gets remarried? Is that, a basis for a modification? Melanie's going to say Eric is found this new person and. She's, he married a doctor and she's making all this money. What happens in that circumstance?

Amy Goscha: 27:10

The short answer is no, but it, with everything, it also depends. So if, for instance, the new doctor wife is lowering the, husband, her new husbands certain obligations, like paying directly certain things like the mortgage or certain bills that. When you're looking at a modification, those things are discoverable and possibly could change child support, but not just based off of the fact that you are dating someone new. That person's new finances really have nothing to do in general with a change in circumstance that would word to modification.

Ryan Kalamaya: 27:53

Indeed, and I think that often comes up to turn the page on our final subject or topic Amy, when it comes to child support is how do you enforce child support? What happens if Eric just stops paying? What are the options for Melanie in terms of enforcing child support?

Amy Goscha: 28:12

She can file a motion for Contempt, which is holding the other party in contempt of the court order. She can file what's called a verified entry of judgment or have an attorney do that to essentially have a judgment entered against Eric and then she can move to garnish wages. But she also can reach out to what's called Child Support Enforcement. So this is part of the. And I think it's really important that we have child support commission in every state because it's very important that child support is paid for the best interests of the children. And if you go through child support enforcement they, there are measures where they can even take away someone's license. We can through contempt measures, put someone in jail. The thing I always think about enforcement is The vehicle that I'm asking for the court, is it actually going to solve the problem? You have to think about okay, how much money is it going to cost to file like a motion for contempt and, or how much is it going to cost to do a verified entry of judgment? So I have this judgment, but this person is self employed. Like, how, do I know where he or she has money? Am I going to be able to essentially get money from that judgment?

Ryan Kalamaya: 29:31

And there can be some really confusing circumstances in which a parent lives out of state and we won't get into that, but like interest as of this recording, the, it's fairly onerous in terms of back child support. So it's 12 percent compounded monthly. Each of those monthly payments is technically supposed to become a judgment. Amy, when you say, entry of a judgment, what you're doing is you're wrapping those all up. You get a a judgment from the court of let's say 50, 000 and that's how much Eric has he owes and back support. And then what Melanie can do is go garnish his wages, garnish, do these various collection efforts, but they often cost money. Now she could ask for Eric for court, the court to order Eric pay for those expenses. You don't have that with the child support enforcement unit and, but there's always this issue there in terms of the cost benefit analysis. Eric doesn't have the money or he becomes temporarily, unemployed or he just becomes, unemployed, then, if she goes and collects, she might prompt him to file a motion to modify and there's some consequences, with that you can't just sit on your hands and, say, Oh, don't worry about it. You don't owe me anything. There's some case law in your marriage at Johnson and some other cases about latches, this legal concept of you can't really invite someone not to comply with the court order. And, you can also just wait, too long. I've certainly seen people where they waited like 10 years before actually trying to collect and there's a, there's a. Find balance in terms of if someone's late, then, do you go and immediately file a motion for contempt or do you wait and see how it, sorts itself out and but people need to be careful in terms of what they put in writing or making sure that, any sort of agreement to modify if there's a temporary kind of glitch or, something that comes up, then They need to put that in writing. The final point that I'll add is that there can be circumstances in which people, they can work out an agreement on I gave the example about Johnny, having a soccer tournament in Phoenix and, there, there can be, an agreement about, hey, I'll pay for that. That should be in writing and there should be a clear record. If you use talking parents, civil communicator or family wizard, there can be this cost sharing reconciliation. And I guess, another point is that in parenting plans or separation agreements, usually there'll be a provision about if a parent pays for an expense, the process by which they seek reimbursement, they provide an invoice. They'll need to make sure that. Obviously, if it's an emergency room visit, the child had to go to the emergency room, presumably, but before signing a child up, then there would be an agreement, or there would need to be notice. I've certainly seen circumstances in which a parent just goes off and just goes on a spending spree, and then they expect the other parent to share in that cost. And, the parent would say, listen, I didn't know anything about this, and I didn't agree to this. Those are issues related to child support making sure that or trying to ensure that a child goes and sees a medical provider that is in network and that you work with, insurance. All of these things are really relevant for child support. We don't have time to go into. Every single kind of detail, but I think that those circumstances and the ground that we've covered, Amy, thus far, really given an idea of, like, why child support exists, how it is determined, and just at least gives listeners an idea of the various kind of competing interests when it comes to child support. Because when children are involved. It can be one of the kind of critical issues. Sometimes people can agree to no child support and you can ask for a deviation and they may determine it's not worth us fighting over and over about someone's income and it's fine, I'll just agree to pay for my expenses and, the courts generally are open to that, but they need to have some documentation. They need to make sure that This isn't just, some, a party kind of browbeating or coercing a parent because the court has an independent obligation to do what's best for the child and to determine child support because child support can't technically be waived because it's for the child's benefit and it's not for a party it's for the child. Any other kind of last thoughts, Amy?

Amy Goscha: 34:02

Yeah, I think that it's important for tracking the amounts that have been paid or unpaid. So for instance that can be done with through, it can be paid through the family court registry, which is a tracking system. So it is clear as to what amounts were paid and when. And then the other thing I would say is on enforcement is usually on what's called the support order. That's the order of the court that says. What the child support obligation is, there's a box that you can check that says if a child support payment is late, like one or two months, then an income assignment just goes right into place. So you can do that, whereas if a parent is consistently late you can establish also like a wage assignment. And what that means is that It's child support gets paid and deducted from one parent's paycheck and then is paid directly to the other parent.

Ryan Kalamaya: 34:54

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. There are logistics and usually what I will do is we'll work with my client either in the other attorney to make sure that child support is automatic. So through some sort of bank transfer, the family support registry is nice because it's a clearing house where it automatically will Debit Eric's account and then credit Melanie's account. There's usually a lag time, but there's a nice record. And then I guess the final point is that there can be disagreements or one thing that people need to be clear on is if Eric owes Melanie 2, 000 a month. of child support, for example, but then he goes and pays something. He will often will just offset or just reduce the amount and say, listen, Melanie, you owe me 500. I'm going to reduce it. That again, needs to be in writing and make sure that it's tied up. Cause it can get really confusing. If Melanie later says, I don't agree that 500 I owed you that. There's a lot of disputes, but when people go through the system and, provide the kind of thought that is required and apply the law. Then, we at the end of the day, come up with a, an amount and then, that can always be changed, but until next time Amy, thanks for joining me to discuss child support and audience. I hope you learned something and appreciate you joining us here on Divorce at Altitude. hey everyone. This is Ryan again. Thank you for joining us on Divorce at Altittude. If you found our tips, insight, or discussion helpful, please tell a friend about this podcast. For show notes, additional resources or links mentioned on today's episode, visit Divorce at Altittude dot com. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen in. Many of our episodes are also posted on YouTube. You can also find Amy and. Law or 9 7 0 3 1 5 2 3 6 5. That's aaa.