Child Support Lawyer in Minnesota Answering Your Questions

One of the main responsibilities of parents is to provide for the needs of their child, and this includes financial support. When the parents of a child aren’t living together, it can be harder to share these expenses equitably. That’s where child support comes in. Below you can find some answers to common questions about basic support and where to get more information.
Child support attorneys can help you know what you can expect from the courts and how to be prepared for your case. Contact TVA Law Office to schedule a consultation to discuss your situation.

How Is Child Support Calculated?

In Minnesota, child support is based on both parents’ incomes. To find the basic support amount, the parents’ incomes are added together. The courts use a table to determine how much it’s expected to cost to support a child with that combined income. Then, the parents are each assigned a percentage of that amount based on the percentage of their combined income. Whoever has the larger share is the person who generally pays support.

When determining child support, there may be other aspects that go into the child support obligations. This can include premiums for medical and dental insurance, cash medical support, and additional monies for extraordinary expenses.

How Does Child Custody Affect Child Support?

How child custody affects child support cases is an often misunderstood aspect of family law. Some parents think that if they aren’t exercising their visitation rights, they shouldn’t have to pay support. Sometimes, a custodial parent will try to withhold a child if the other parent isn’t making their child support payments. However, both of these examples are incorrect and could get you in trouble with the courts.

The only way that child custody affects child support is in helping determine who pays whom and how much the child support payments are. For example, it’s more common for one parent to be paying child support to the other in a sole custody scenario. In shared parenting, the time split can make a difference in child support as well. An arrangement where the parents are sharing equal time could end up with a lower child support amount than where one parent has the children 80 percent of the time.

How Do I Pay Child Support?

All child support payments in Minnesota have to be processed through the state’s Child Support Payment Center. You can either make the payments directly to the Child Support Payment Center online or with cash or check, or you can have the payments automatically garnished from your wages. It’s important not to pay child support directly to the other parent without going through the Child Support Payment Center because you may not get credited for that payment and could end up facing arrears or support measures.

What Is Child Support Enforcement?

Child support enforcement is what happens when the person who is supposed to be paying child support doesn’t fulfill their child support obligations. Child support orders specify how much you should be paying, including any medical support. Failure to keep up with those obligations can mean that you start accumulating a past due balance — called arrears — or face enforcement measures, such as losing your driver’s license, having to pay additional fees, and being held in contempt of court.

How Can Child Support Attorneys Help?

Child support attorneys can help both those who are paying child support and those who should be receiving child support. A child support attorney can help you get a child support order put in place, file for modifications as needed, and provide counsel on what to do if you start to fall behind on your payments or you’re not receiving your child support payments as you should.

When you have questions about child support — whether that’s getting it started or asking for a modification — child support lawyers are there to help. At TVA Law Office, we know that child support can have a significant effect on your finances. Call 651-571-8547 to schedule a time to talk with an attorney.