Negotiating Child Support

[OrleansLawyer]

a person should be responsible for themselves.

They are. That's why you are expected to fulfill the obligations of the agreement you signed by getting married.

[OrleansLawyer]

and that ends when you get divorced

Not according to the laws as related to marriage in Ontario.

[Rioe]

and that ends when you get divorced

I believe the legal marriage terms are until death. Not divorce. Marriage should really be a series of five year contracts or something!

[arabian]

Slughead - if you don't believe in SS then the person who stays home with the kids should receive a salary from the working spouse and also have the opportunity to pay into a pension plan.

[murphyslaw]

the person does all bills paid and food and clothing or is that stuff free these days?

If you hired a live in Nanny just to mind the kids you would have to pay for food anyway and still pay a weekly wage .Of course many smart men do support their wife in upgrading their education, and re-entering the work force, prior to dropping the d-bomb.That way she is actually able to support herself.Its a newer trend in divorce.

[Tayken]

Child support is the right of the child. He should be settling his finances to account for the child support he should be paying. Notwithstanding undue hardship or other exceptional circumstances, obtaining guideline support for the primary caregiver is one of the easiest things to accomplish in family law.

Just to highlight the only elements for which a court will order non-table amount child support. Very rare situations.

Furthermore, should both parties agree to a lower child support amount and the receiving parent go back to court... You could be paying the outstanding arrears because "child support is the right of the child".

It is very hard to sign away the rights of the child by either parent.

Good Luck!
Tayken

[frustratedwithex]

It is very hard to sign away the rights of the child by either parent.

Good Luck!
Tayken

If you are negotiating outside of a court room, you can most definitely agree to a lesser amount of child support.

If it is not that much different than the table amount, why not agree to it and stay out of court?

If both parties are being reasonable, this can be done. Not every divorce is high conflict. It can always be re-negotiated when income information is exchanged.

[Tayken]

IF you go before the court over it. You CAN always agree to a lower amount if necessary. CS is one of those things that is NOT set in stone and can ALWAYS be reopened. I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a second.

Applying your own logic to the argument. Should the parties in an out of court settlement agree to a lower amount of CS, a judge is well within their rights to order the table amounts and in a retroactive manner. To make a any order below the table amount takes an incredible amount of evidence to support. Case law for which lower amounts than the guideline CS is ordered are incredibly complex cases and the other party would probably have to make a claim for unjust enrichment, etc...

Unless the other party fits the condition of the 1% of times where CS is ordered to a lower amount of table support... I would recommend to hold your ground on the matter... Especially if the other party is unrepresented and there is no lawyer on the other side advising them as to what conditions a lower amount of CS can be ordered on.

Good Luck!
Tayken

[OrleansLawyer]

If you are negotiating outside of a court room, you can most definitely agree to a lesser amount of child support.

This is true. If the parties are amicable it is not unheard of for them to make their own arrangements as far as child support goes. The most common case is with equal access, the parties come up with a number instead of using offset guideline support.

However, since Guideline support is an all but certainty at court, doing so is entirely unnecessary. Most family lawyers regard Guideline support as a fact of life rather than an issue to discuss.