Calculating Child Support Under The Revised Child Support Statute In Illinois


One of the biggest challenges parents face in Illinois family law cases relates to calculating child support under the revised child support statute. In Illinois family law cases, the child support statute requires income information from both parents in order to calculate support, as well as a parenting time schedule.

3 Challenges in Calculating Child Support Under Illinois Law

Under the old Illinois statute, calculating child support it was only required that a parent know their net income and a simple percentage calculation told them what their child support obligation would be. Judges and lawyers could easily calculate a rough estimate for child support off the top of their heads. Now, changes in the child support calculation in Illinois has moved to income sharing which makes things a bit more complicated.

1 – Setting Temporary Child Support

TEMPORARY SUPPORT UNDER THE OLD STATUTE

First, in a new case, setting a temporary child support order for the pendency of the case was simple. Parties would exchange financial affidavits and it would be easy enough to calculate the obligor’s child support obligation. However, due to the impact that the number of annual overnights has on child support calculations in Illinois, a temporary parenting time schedule is essentially necessary before the Court can enter a temporary child support order.

TEMPORARY SUPPORT UNDER THE REVISED STATUTE

Now, a child support order at the beginning of a case is almost always without prejudice and modifiable, especially if it is in place during the pendency, but knowing the parenting time schedule looks like can seriously and significantly impact the child support order. It can even change who the obligor is and who the obligee is in situations where parties earn similar amounts and have nearly equal parenting time. So, temporary support orders during the pendency of the case have become a bit more challenging.

2 – Other Parent’s Income Impact on Child Support Amount

Another challenge under the new statute is that the other party’s income affects your support obligation. If they earn more, you pay less, and vice versa. So, now, suddenly litigants have an interest in the other party’s earnings.

In divorce cases where maintenance is at issue, this has always been the case, but now this is becoming an issue in child support cases, whereas before it did not matter what the obligee earned because it didn’t impact support. The child support statute has taken this into consideration and there is a provision regarding the Court being able to impute income to the obligor when they are underemployed or unemployed.

3 – Attorney Preparation for Child Support Hearing under the New Law

Finally, one of the largest challenges under the revised child support statute is for attorneys and the preparation needed for hearings on child support. Sometimes a party’s earnings are not particularly clear from their pay documents and the Court will need to make a determination as to what the parties’ respective incomes are, at the actual hearing itself. Then, child support will need to be recalculated during the hearing. Attorneys now have to calculate numerous child support scenarios to try and determine the possibility of what the Judge may order at the hearing, so they can ensure they have a properly calculated child support amount at all possible income scenarios.

Get Trusted Advice from an Experienced Child Support Attorney

Overall, the new statute does have benefits, especially that it takes into consideration the time spent with both parents and the income of both parties. However, additional preparation and information are needed to run child support calculations at the beginning of cases, which can be problematic if that information is not received timely.

THIS ARTICLE WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AT: https://illinoislawforyou.com/child-custody/vaccinate-child-without-permission/
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Divorced Parents Disagree About the COVID-19 Vaccine 

Image
  There is a lot of disagreement about vaccinations for children and the argument between parents with differing views on this subject is not a new one.  Illinois family law attorneys representing parents in this type of disagreement have worked throughout the years to avoid the problem in its entirety by addressing the issue of vaccination in the parenting agreement, now called an Allocation Judgment.  A prior agreement on how to handle vaccinations will give clarity as parents deal with the COVID-19 vaccine.   COVID-19 Vaccine Questions from Divorced Parents There are a number of questions and co-parenting issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. Here are five of the most frequently asked questions we are seeing in our Chicago family law practice: 1. What If the Other Parent Will Not Get the COVID-19 Vaccine? We just saw a judge in Cook County strip a mother of her parenting time because she had not received the COVID-19 vaccine.  The parents were before...
Read more

Illinois Law Update – Can a Guardian Ad Litem Speak to a Therapist in My Case?

Image
The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act in recent years gave the courts in Illinois the authority to order therapy for a minor child, family counseling for one or more of the parties and the child, or parental education for one or more of the parties if it finds that the parents or all parties agree, that the child’s physical health is endangered or that the child’s emotional development is impaired, or that an abuse of allocated parenting time has occurred, or, one or both of the parties violated the judgment with regard to conduct affecting or in the presence of the minor child.  {See 750 ILCS 5/607.6 regarding same}.  However, the same statute previously explicitly indicated that all therapy would be confidential. As of August 13, 2021, Illinois enacted Public Act 102-349, and the statute is now modified.  It no longer has a provision stating that therapy would be strictly confidential.  This kept all information obtained by a Guardian Ad Litem fro...
Read more

Changes to the Illinois Child Relocation Statute in Family Law for 2022

Image
  Oftentimes while a family law case is pending, parents will need or want to move with their minor children . The child relocation law in Illinois as of 2021 indicated that you need to seek approval for relocation from the Court if you want to move your minor child(ren) more than 25 miles away from their current residence. However, under the Illinois statute, as written in 2021, it indicates that “a parent who has been allocated a majority of parenting time or either parent who has been allocated equal parenting time may seek to relocate with a child.”  Judges and attorneys have interpreted this section to mean that until a parenting time schedule is in place, a parent cannot seek relocation, because it is unknown if that parent has the “majority” of parenting time or “equal” parenting time, until, at a minimum, there is a parenting time schedule in a custody order.  New Temporary Child Relocation Law Many Judges have also been interpreting the child relocation law to ...
Read more