Child Support (Part 2)

After all, the amounts of support ordered pursuant to the chart can seem well in excess of the cost of the children's needs, and we all can picture situations in which, although the kids aren't starving or neglected, mom also has a nice new wardrobe courtesy of the support money. In general, courts presume that the party receiving child support spends the money to support the children, and the burden is on you to prove otherwise. Because just about everyone paying support complains of paying "too much," judges have a tendency to take a cynical view of parties coming into court with this kind of an issue.

Further, it is difficult to prove that expenditures do not benefit the children. For instance, if mom buys a nice new house and uses some support money for it, that would benefit the kids even if it benefits mom more. As a result, it takes fairly direct evidence to get the party receiving support in trouble for not using it properly. Some states have statutes that can require the recipient of support to provide the payor with an accounting of where the support money went; it is difficult, however, to convince a judge to actually make this happen.

One issue that varies from state to state is the question of when support terminates. Although all states terminate support when the child dies, marries, enters the military, or becomes emancipated (self-supporting and living on his own), in the absence of these circumstances the age at which support terminates varies. Some states allow child support to continue past the age of 18 (generally to the child's 22^nd birthday) if the child is attending college. On the other hand, some states, like Texas, terminate support when the child turns age 18 unless he or she is still in high school.

This online custody guide is adapted with permission from "Civil War: A Dad's Guide to Custody" (266 pages, softcover) - available in our online store.