A Child Support Story With a Happy Ending

A great misconception about California child support payments is that the issue is always something to be argued about. This is totally wrong. I actually used to have clients, John and Ellen, who believed that child support would be such a difficult issue to settle. Yes, it is one of the most important issues during a divorce, and yes, it is also one of the top priorities, but it definitely does not have to be difficult.

John and Ellen had a 12-year-old son, Charles. Initially, each spouse wanted to have more time to spend with Charles. John and Ellen argued a lot, especially about who Charles would stay with during the major holidays. Each spouse believed that they could take better care of Charles. They also couldn't agree on how much child support John should pay Ellen.

Luckily, John and Ellen were able to ask me about what I thought about these issues. Of course, I told them about California's mandatory guidelines for establish the amount of child support, which must be followed by the judge if the case ends up in court.

I also explained to the couple that if both parents can sit down with each other and come up with a settlement agreement, they could decide what was best for their family regarding support payments, instead of going to court where a judge would order support based on the established guidelines. In the case of John and Ellen, I had to convince both of them to lower their pride and cooperate with one another after telling them how much better it is to create their own settlement agreement.

I also told John and Ellen about a few important facts about California child support. The first thing John and Ellen wanted to know was the duration of California child support, and I told them that Charles was entitled to support until he reached 19 years old. But if Charles turns 18 and marries, dies, becomes self-supporting, or is not a full-time high school student anymore, then he would no longer be entitled to child support.

I also told John and Ellen that if they wanted to support Charles throughout his college years, then it could be done if they agreed in writing. The same could also be done if they wanted to support Charles until he turned 21.

I explained that the basic guideline support wasn't the only element to be considered as part of their California child support. There are actually other factors that can affect support payments, such as health insurance and shared expenses.

California law requires that child support payments include health insurance for children as long as it is available at a reasonable cost to either of the parents. Since John could obtain health insurance for Charles by adding his son to the policy provided by his employer, I counseled the couple to include this in their agreement.

Once John and Ellen understood the benefits of creating a settlement agreement for their divorce that included a clause regarding child support payments, they were able to settle their divorce without going to court, and saved a bundle on legal fees.

As I always tell my clients, it's better to work things out together so you can send your own child to college on the money you save on legal expenses, instead of sending some lawyer's kid to college.