Sometimes Divorce Lawyers Cannot Offset Child Support in Louisiana

In Louisiana a parent who does not have custody of their child, or the non-domiciliary parent when there is joint custody, may owe child support.  This is the money, divorce lawyers will likely contend, which the child requires to live a reasonably comfortable life.

In instances where one parent owes child support, they may be able to offset the amount of that payment by providing for the child while they have custody of them.  If that parent meets certain requirements under Louisiana law, such as having custody of the child for a certain amount of days per year, or reducing the amount of money the domiciliary parent would have to pay to having custody, then the non-domiciliary parent may have a claim to credit their child support award accordingly.  The authority to do so comes from Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315.8.  Let’s look at some examples to see how this statute might be instructive for divorce lawyers.

Let’s say that Mark and Diane have been married for twelve years.  They have one child from the marriage: Dave.  Dave is ten years old.  Each seeks representation from one of the local divorce lawyers, and eventually Diane and Mark enter into a joint custody arrangement.  As part of this arrangement, Diane is named the domiciliary parent.

Mark has custodial rights over Dave, but he does not take full advantage of them.  Mark has a very busy career and he finds it difficult to make time to see his son.  Technically Mark has ten days a month of visitation over Dave, but he rarely uses all of this time.  Most of his contact with Dave occurs when he picks his son up from school.  He makes a point to pick Dave up every day from school, even during the days which he does not have custody.  However after picking him up, Mark drives him to his mother’s house.

Now let’s say that Mark thinks he is paying too much in child support.  He wants a credit against the amount he owes Diane and he seeks advice from one of his former divorce lawyers.  Under Louisiana Revised Statute 9:315.8, Mark does not have a great argument.  The main reason is that Mark simply does not spend enough time with his son to qualify.  315.8 requires that the parent have custody of their child for more than seventy-three days to qualify for the credit.  In order for a “day” of custody to count, then that parent needs to have spent at least four hours with the child.  Even though Mark sees Dave almost every day, he does not spend the requisite amount of time with Dave in his custody.

That said, other portions of the Revised Statutes, such as 315.6, recognize that the transportation costs of transferring the child to the other parent’s custody may be relevant in affixing child support awards.  It is not clear from the above example whether or not Mark would qualify and whether divorce lawyers would fully understand whether Mark is entitled to a reduction.

This above is informational only, not legal advice. Will Beaumont. New Orleans.