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How is Child Support Calculated?

Child Support Calculation Lawyers Chester NJ

Serving Parents across Morris County and Northern New Jersey

Child supportChild Support Calculation Lawyers Chester NJ calculations are well regulated and defined via the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines. This is in large part in order to avoid costly and lengthy legal battles over child support, something which our state feels every child is entitled to.

However, child support decisions are handled on an individual basis, and even within these well-established calculations, there is room for legal interpretation and adjustment when it comes to calculating the child support a parent can expect to pay or receive as part of a divorce, or when parents live in separate households.

At Townsend, Tomaio, & Newmark, our team of experienced family and divorce attorneys take pride in providing highly insightful and attentive legal service to our clients throughout New Jersey, including the towns of Chester, Morristown, Harding, Mendham, Chatham, and the greater Morris County area. We believe in offering multiple avenues to reaching your end goal, including the litigation free options of mediationarbitration, and collaborative conflict resolution. No matter what your legal concerns, you can lean on our 75 plus years of combined experience to reach the best possible outcome for you and your family.

Call our office today at (973) 840-8970 to discuss your individual needs and concerns regarding child support, divorce proceedingschild custody, or any other family law matter in a free and confidential consultation.

Child Support Calculation Factors Morris County

In general, there are two major factors which help to determine child support in any New Jersey child support decision – the financial situation of each parent, and the existing child custody and visitation agreements.

To elaborate:

  • Finances – When calculating child support, each parent’s earning potential, income, expected expenses, and deductibles (including child support for other children of a different relationship) are all taken into consideration. There is very little flexibility in how these financial factors affect the pending child support agreement, which makes it all that much more important that complete and accurate financial details are provided and used.
  • Child Custody and Parenting Time – The other major factor which goes into the calculation of child support is the child custody and parenting time agreement. While we will go into more detail in the following section on this topic, the basic idea is that there are a variety of expenses incurred by the children spending time with a particular parent, and the more time they spend with one parent or the other, the more that parent will need to cover these expenses. Depending on the financial situation of each parent, the amount of time they spend with their children will heavily influence the child support decision.

Child Custody and Child Support Agreements

As mentioned, child custody and parenting time heavily influences how child support is calculated in New Jersey. Specifically, there are two different formulas applied depending on whether or not the parents “share” custody, or one parent or the other has “primary” custody.

By law, a parent is considered to have primary child custody if the children spend less than 28% of their time with the other parent. Not only can our Chatham family law attorneys help you secure the child custody and parenting time agreement which works for you and your family, in doing so we will also take into consideration how your child custody agreement will ultimately affect child support.

What Expenses Does New Jersey Child Support Cover?

Child support is designed to ensure that children with parents of multiple households are not economically affected, meaning they have the same opportunities afforded to them as they would if their parents were married.

While not every expense a child incurs is considered necessary to their overall well-being and situation, child support specifically accounts for the following types of expenses:

  1. Fixed Expenses such as housing costs and utilities
  2. Controlled Expenses such as clothing, education, extra-curricular activities, and hygiene
  3. Variable Expenses which are incurred when a parent is spending time with the children such as food, transportation, and entertainment

Other considerations for child support include college education (when the children qualify), and in some cases even things like car insurance payments.

Again, while the formula used to calculate child support is mostly fixed, some of the factors it is dependent upon are highly variable. How much time and cost is associated with a child’s entertainment? Is going to private school an option? Does your child expect to attend university full-time? How much is reasonable to spend on clothing, are those $150 jeans really necessary?

All of these questions and more can help to be answered, and accurately factored into your child support agreement, by an experienced and knowledgeable Morris County child support lawyer.

Contact our Morristown Child Support Lawyers Today

Whether you are going through the divorce process or drafting a non-marital agreement pertaining to child support or child custody, our knowledgeable and experienced family law attorneys are here to serve your individual needs. We have over 75 years of combing experience helping clients across New Jersey find mutually beneficial outcomes for co-parents across Chester, Mendham, Chatham, Morristown, Harding, and the greater Morris County area, we believe our track record of success speaks for itself.

Contact us online or through our Morris County office at (973) 840-8970 today for a free and confidential consultation regarding your unique needs and concerns regarding your child support dispute.