Therefore, there is technically no maximum amount of child support in Florida. Instead, the parties must pay an amount that supports the standard of living enjoyed by the family prior to the divorce and that is fair based on the income of both parties, as well as their degree of responsibility in providing child care. Florida's child support program can help you with a request for a court order for child support if you don't have one in place; this is an essential requirement of the courts to legalize the obligation to pay alimony. If the parents were not previously married, child support in Florida is calculated to allow the same level of financial support as if they lived in a two-parent household.
Florida family courts remain overwhelmingly busy with family law cases, so you need an attorney to expedite your child support payments. Then, the amount of time shared between parents, based on the number of overnight stays, is counted to reach a base amount of child support. The law that allows retroactive child support allows you to collect up to 24 months of arrears. Once the need for child support is determined, each parent's individual net monthly income is divided by the combined net monthly income.
Courts try to ensure that an increase in payment also results in an increase in child support payments. In such a case, the financial situation of either parent must show sufficient evidence to produce a change of at least 10% in monthly child support. If a parent is ordered to pay child support, this can affect the amount of support required for subsequent children. When one parent owes the other parent child support and doesn't pay, the other parent has the recourse to recover these funds.
The amount paid for child support includes all expenses incurred in the custodial parent's household, including the child's daily food and maintenance expenses, health insurance, and total night visitation will factor in the total amount of child support. For example, if a Florida family law court issues a child support order and the parent later moves to Georgia, UIFSA will help enforce the order in Georgia. Child support is a court-ordered obligation of financial responsibilities for the care, maintenance, training and education of a child. If you know each parent's net monthly income and the cost of any health care or child care expenses a parent is paying, you can use this quick calculator to calculate your child support payment.
In Florida, both parents have a legal obligation to keep their children within their financial capacity to do so. In cases involving joint custody, the court will generally apply a four-step analysis to determine the amount of child support.
