I am on a break in my first day of a two day trial.  Interesting and tiring at the same time.

In Kansas, once child support is ordered, it never changes unless:

1. The child reaches 18 or
2. Somebody files a motion to modify.

Nothing is automatic except termination on the child’s 18th birthday.  So, if support was ordered 10 years ago and nobody asked for a modification, the support will be hopelessly out of date.  During that time all sorts of things will have changed that affect child support including:

• the child/ren will have moved into the different support categories
• incomes of the parents
• tax benefits
• health insurance costs
• daycare costs

These will all have a substantial impact on what child support should be.  Imagine that the old worksheet had daycare of $750.00/month that is now gone, or health insurance for the kids was only $50.00/month, but now it is $450.00/month.  We see these changes all the time.  It will lead to somebody paying far too much or receiving far too little.

So, if you have an old (more than 3 years) child support order you should have it reviewed to see if you are paying too much or receiving too little.  Mention this Blog for a free 30 minute phone review of your support.  In many cases the change in support is so substantial that the cost of having the court modify your support is recovered in as little as 2 or 3 months.  If you can’t recover the cost of modification within the first year, then I may recommend that it is not worth the fees and you should leave it alone.

It’s free to find out, so give us a call.

Mark A. Rohrbaugh

Some of you may have noticed that our webpage has changed.  In order to remain current and relevant, we have changed our webpage vendor and redesigned our online presence.  We hope the changes are for the better and welcome your feedback.

Thanks!

Chris, Mark and Hatem.