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Originally Posted by jennw
His daughter by his 1st marriage is six-years old though, not 16 ( i think that is typed too close together)..not sure if that will make a difference though in the points you stated?
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No the age is not a factor, except when they go off to college, then things can get sticky with respect to CS and tuition etc. But that's not an issue yet.
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Originally Posted by jennw
Just another question. How long does this process take (roughly?) and does it always have to go before a judge? Or is there some other 'mediator' type resolution?
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It does not "have" to go before a judge if your husband (or his lawyer, or mediator) can work with the other side and come to an agreement. If the other side agrees that they would not win in a case like this before a judge they may agree to work things out, draw up an agreement and reduce CS relative to the respective parties "standard of living". I do not know of a case where that happened. But if she is reasonable and you can demonstrate that you have a strong case to win in court, she may be in agreement.
The time frame should be similar to any motion when going to court as that is basically what this would be. It's basically a motion to demonstrate a material change, and that change being ability to pay, undue financial hardship coupled with her reduced need and increased standard of living. Despite how it feels to some and how expensive court costs are, CS is not "intended" to bankrupt one parent for the benefit of the custodial parent, its primary intention was to "equalize" the standard of living for the children from one home to the other. And the majority of the cases sees the custodial parent earning less than the paying parent. So this was set up to equalize that so that the children could benefit from the means of "both" parents.
Hope this answers your question.
Best of luck.
FL