Mount Pleasant Family Lawyers Seek Appropriate Child Support Orders

Pursuing realistic financial goals for the good of your children

Child support arrangements can be straightforward and trouble-free when parents are reasonably cooperative and transparent about their finances. However, post-divorce relations are not always amicable, and child support can be a major point of contention. In some cases, one parent disputes the amount of support and accuses the other of exorbitant demands. Some parties try to hide assets, underreport income or deliberately stop working to try to skirt their support obligations. When conflicts arise, you need a skilled and experienced attorney to work toward a positive resolution. For more than 20 years, Barker Family Law has helped parents overcome a wide array of obstacles in child support cases.

How child support works in South Carolina 

A child is entitled to financial support from both parents until the age of 18 or until completion of high school, whichever comes later. Child support consists of regular payments made by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent. In cases of joint custody, where parents have roughly an equal number of overnights throughout the year, the higher-earning parent makes payments to the lower-earning parent. 

To ensure consistency in child support orders, the state has developed guidelines that employ an “income shares” model, based on the net-income of both parents from all sources.

To calculate the amount of child support payments, a court will:

• Add together the gross annual income of each parent from all sources. 
• Arrive at the parents’ total net income by deducting allowable expenses, such as union dues, alimony and support obligations from a previous relationship, child’s medical insurance costs, extraordinary child’s medical costs and work-related daycare costs.
• Factor in the number of children to be supported to arrive at the parents’ total child support obligation.
• Divide the total support obligation in proportion to each parent’s share of the total net income.
• Subtract the lesser obligation from the greater one to arrive at the annual amount the high-earning parent will pay the low-earning parent.
• Adjust the amount based on the number of overnights each parent has during the year. Noncustodial parents with a large number of overnights will pay less than those with fewer overnights.

This calculation gives the amount of basic support. The court has discretion to adjust the amount so that the children can maintain the standard of living they would have enjoyed had the parents remained married. For example, a court can order parents with sufficient means to pay private school tuition, costs of extracurricular activities and other expenses. 

As your advocate in a child custody case, our family lawyers bring all pertinent facts to the court’s attention and fight for total financial transparency from the other parent.

Enforcing child support in South Carolina

South Carolina empowers the courts to enforce payment of child support payments through aggressive collection tools and legal sanctions against obligor parents who willfully miss payments. Disputes over custody and visitation sometimes prompt one parent to withhold support payments or the other parent to prevent visits. However, child support obligations are enforceable regardless of custody disputes.

Child support modifications in South Carolina

If there has been a substantial change in your circumstances, a court can make modifications to an existing child support order. Do not make an informal agreement, because the court will not enforce it, and you will be responsible for missed payments. See our firm immediately to discuss a modification.

Contact our Mount Pleasant family lawyers for a child support consultation

Barker Family Law represents parents in child support disputes in greater Charleston. Call us at 843-938-5957 or contact us online to schedule a consultation.