Child Support
Child support in California is a legal obligation that a parent must pay to help support their child(ren) during or after a divorce, separation or paternity case. In these cases, the amount of child support ordered by a court is almost always based on California’s child support guidelines. The guidelines account for multiple factors, principally of which are both parents’ incomes and the amount of time each parent spends with the child(ren). Judges and lawyers commonly use the computer software program called “DissoMaster” to compute a parent’s child support obligation.
Under California law, both parents have a legal duty to support their child(ren) until they reach the age of 18 (or 19 if still in high school full time). The child support payments are intended to help cover the child’s basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing and medical care.
Once a child support order is established, the parent paying child support is required to make regular payments to the other parent, usually on a monthly basis. Failure to make child support payments can result in legal consequences, such as wage garnishment, seizure of assets, loss of a driver’s license or passport, or even imprisonment in extreme cases.
The Department of Child Support Services (“DCSS”) is a free service for parents with children in California who need child support from the other parent. Initiating a DCSS case means child support issues will be resolved exclusively at DCSS and cannot also be resolved by the judge in a simultaneous family court action. For example, if you have a divorce case and you have at least one minor child, child support is an issue in your divorce case. You may address child support with the family court judge along with all other issues in your divorce case (e.g., property division, spousal support, child custody and visitation, etc.). However, if you initiate a child support case with DCSS at the same time as your divorce case is ongoing, then DCSS has sole jurisdiction over child support. Your family law judge in the divorce case will then have no jurisdiction to make child support orders.
Child support orders can be modified if there are significant changes in either parent’s income or in the child’s needs, such as changes in custody arrangements or medical expenses. As a result, child support orders can be frequently modified.
