When the incomes of the parents exceed the child support guidelines, a child support argument becomes slightly different in that there will now likely be a number of factors that the divorce attorney will put before the court.
In 1988, the Family Support Act was made law, requiring states to institute specific guidelines to determine how much child support will be – as opposed to states simply using the best interests of the child awards that result in disparate rulings. Not all states, however, have guidelines that make it clear what happens when a spouse has a very high monthly income.
In Louisiana, for instance, any income in excess of the child support guidelines ($20,000) allow, it is up to the court’s discretion to allocate the amount of child support that the court should award. And it is here that a divorce attorney is given the most freedom to argue for the best interests of the child. The court in Louisiana is not instructed to look at specific factors. And essentially the only limitation placed on the court is that it cannot have a support amount that is lower than the amount set forth in the guidelines. (This though might be debatable under certain circumstances, despite the statute, if it is in the best interests of the child.)
Moreover, Louisiana case law specifically excludes any “mathematical formulas” for incomes that are over the guidelines. But, courts have said that some of the factors that a divorce attorney or other lawyer may decide to cover are the circumstances of the parents, their ability to pay, the lifestyle the child would have enjoyed had the parents’ marriage not ended, and, as always, the best interests of the child.
By design, not having child support guidelines for a divorce attorney or a court to understand the amount that the law states to be appropriate is rare. Having said this, it is even rarer that the court has to truly consider all of the factors that Louisiana courts say that are relevant. The reason for this is that high income earners often send their children to very expensive private schools, etc. It is truly rarer when one parent’s income is so high that, even after paying for the children’s pricey lifestyle in addition to the basic child support obligation, that the parent must make an additional payment in child support. One of the reasons for this is that typically extreme high income parents have enough property together the children are not suffering a great disparity between the lifestyle of the parents.
However, if there was a pre-nuptial agreement preventing property from becoming community, and you have an extremely high earning worker, you would likely need to work with a divorce attorney to figure out how best to move forward with regard to child support.
Will Beaumont is a lawyer in New Orleans. This article is informational, not legal advice.
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