New Jersey Child Support Lawyer

About Child Support Cases in New Jersey

It is the law in New Jersey that both parents contribute to the support of their children. Children have the right to be supported to the level consistent with their parents' standard of living. It does not matter whether or not the parents are married. The right of child support is the same, and the law is applied the same, whether or not the parents were married.

The New Jersey law for child support starts with our statutory provisions. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23 provides factors for the Court to consider in establishing child support. Those factors are:

1. Needs of the child;
2. Standard of living and economic circumstances of each parent;
3. All sources of income and assets of each parent;
4. Earning ability of each parent, including educational background, training, employment skills, work experience, custodial responsibility for children including the cost of providing child care and the length of time and cost of each parent to obtain training or experience for appropriate employment;
5. Need and capacity of the child for education, including higher education;
6. Age and health of the child and each parent;
7. Income, assets and earning ability of the child;
8. Responsibility of the parents for the court-ordered support of others;
9. Reasonable debts and liabilities of each child and parent; and
10. Any other factors the court may deem relevant.

In order to provide for efficient and uniformed standards, New Jersey has promulgated guidelines for the Court's use in determining the amount of child support. These guidelines are known as the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines. The Child support guidelines are outlined in R. 5:6A and set forth in Appendix IX of the New Jersey Court Rules. The amount of child support determined under the Child Support guidelines is based upon the parties' combined gross weekly income. The rationale behind the guidelines is that basic child support is broken down into three categories: 38% of the award is allocated to fixed costs such as housing and utilities which are incurred even when the child is not residing with the custodial parent; 37% are variable costs, which include transportation and food, and 25% are controlled costs such as clothing, personal care, and entertainment.

A Benefit of the Guidelines is that it takes much of the dispute away from the determination of the amount of child support. The Court may modify the guidelines or disregard the guidelines only when good cause is shown or otherwise provided in Appendix IX-A 21.The Child Support guidelines are mandatory in all cases for the initial application of child support when the combined net income is $187,200. When the parties net income exceeds $187,200 per year, the Court must apply the guidelines up to $187,200 per year and a discretionary amount based upon the factors specified in N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23. See our section dealing with the Above the Guidelines child support for more information for these situations.

After determining the net income of the parties and the basic child support amount, certain expenses may be added to the basic child support amount such as: the net cost (after tax credit) of work related child care; health insurance premiums; predictable unreimbursed health care expenses, and government benefits such as social security disability. Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) and welfare payments received are not deducted since they supplement parental income based upon financial need.

Also, the Court will take into account any alimony paid or received; prior support orders, other dependent deductions, mandatory retirement contributions, and union dues.

The basic child support award is also adjusted downward to reflect the degree of co-parenting time of the non-custodial parent. Variable costs are adjusted in every case where the non-custodial parent exercises time on a regular schedule of visitation. The reduction in the child support award is equivalent to the percentage of time that the non-custodial parent spends with the children applied against the 37% variable expense. The percentage of time spent with the children is calculated on the number of overnights spent with the child. Overnight means the majority of a 24 hour day, which is defined as 12 hours.

The Court will adjust fixed costs when the non-custodial parent exercises overnight visitation equivalent to two or more overnights per week or at least 28% of the time and that parent can show an expense for separate living accommodations. In these shared parenting arrangements, the custodial parent is designated the parent of primary residence and the non-custodial parent is designated the parent of alternate residence. There are different guidelines utilized in such shared parenting agreements that generally decrease the amount of child support to take into account the alternate parent's additional expenses.

Divorce Attorney in New Jersey

It is important to have such figures reviewed by an experienced New Jersey attorney who understands that every family and every divorce is unique. You should speak to a New Jersey divorce lawyer at The Law Office of Steven P. Monaghan about child support issues and to get answers to any questions you may have.

Contact a New Jersey child support attorney to get assistance and answers to any questions you may have about child support issues.