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  • Separation / CS Equal time vs Shared

    Hi
    Im not clear on what on this and if some could expand on this would be greatly appreciated.
    We did a separation agreement and agreed on Shared custody (Child spends 4 days with parent A and 3 days with parent B). The agreement says parent B will spend a min of 40%. Parents income is offset.

    child (8) says not fair, wants to spend equal time with both parents.
    -does the Separation agreement need to be revised to include the new 50/50 schedule ?

    -if time changes to 50/50, does CS amount change too?

    -parent A went away for a full month. parent B looked after kid full time during that time and still paid CS to parent A. What is the rule for that?

    - if either parent's income changes, does agreement need to be revised to reflect that ?

    thank you

  • #2
    1. Dealing with the child's needs should always be #1. If the child requests 50/50, this is understandable, and actually reflects a well-adjusted attitude from the child.
    2. 60/40 is the same as 50/50 in the law. Nothing really changes from one to the other. Think of this as "anything between 60/40" and it will make more sense.
    3. As such, nothing changes in terms of support with 60/40 or 50/50
    4. going away for a month shouldn't really change anything in spirit if you are going to continue with 50/50. Both parents should remain equally involved and both are going to incure the same expenses.
    5. If it is a one time thing, then you would have a difficult time going to court to argue that 50/50 has changed because of one month. Going forward would still be 50/50. The courst look at the situation going forward.
    6. The agreement should be updated yearly to reflect changes in income.

    Comment


    • #3
      If the agreement says that child will spend "a minimum of" or "not less than" 40% with each parent, then a 50/50 split is already covered and the agreement doesn't need to be changed.

      With the parent going away for a month - this shouldn't affect the CS situation unless one parent wants to be a jerk and claim that they have now had the child residing with them for more than 40% of the preceding 12 months and therefore should be getting full table support. I don't think this would get anywhere if the intent and practice is clearly for the child to spend equal time with both parents, but jerks will be jerks. Might be wise for the parent going on the long trip to get a statement from the other parent making it clear that this trip does not represent a change from the intent and practice of shared parenting.

      Yes, your agreement should contain a clause saying that you will update your financial information once a year (exchange tax returns and/or notices of assessment by a certain date in the year), and child support will be updated annually to reflect the incomes in the most recent financial documents. The usual things seems to be to update CS on a specified date each year, or to state that CS will change at the same time as the income of the net payor parent changes, if the net payor has a salaried job where income is updated annually (as opposed to job where income can fluctuate month to month - in which case, you'd want to set a specific calendar date for the change). Of course, individual agreements vary.
      Last edited by stripes; 01-28-2014, 04:22 PM.

      Comment

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