Hoboken Child Support

What is ‘Imputed Income’ and What Impact Can It Have on My Child Support Case in New Jersey?

April 13, 2021 | Frank Marciano

One of the things about which the law is abundantly clear is that a parent has a legal obligation to support their minor children. What is not always so clear, however, is exactly how that support should be calculated. Sometimes, parents may try to dodge paying child support (or enhance the amount of child support they receive) by purposefully reducing their workload… or by not working at all. When they do, the law has a solution for that — something called “imputed income.” If your child support case involves an issue of imputed income – whether that income is to be imputed to you or to your child’s other parent – you need an experienced Hoboken family law attorney on your side to handle all of the legal and factual intricacies involved with winning an argument about imputed income.

Generally speaking, child support is calculated using the parents’ actual incomes and the child support “guidelines,” which are set by court rule. Sometimes, though, actual incomes won’t yield a fair outcome. If, for example, a father who is a litigation attorney freely leaves his Bergen County law practice to take a job teaching surfing lessons on Long Beach Island, then the law may look at that parent and say he is “voluntarily underemployed.” When that happens, the court can impute income to that parent at the level he was earning before the job change.

In a scenario like that, the court may calculate the father’s support using, instead of the sum the father actually earned from his teaching job, a figure equal to what father earned his last year as an attorney. The same thing may happen when a parent decides to stop working completely, which is called “voluntary unemployment.”

Agatha Christie Said That ‘Assumptions Are Dangerous Things’… That’s True in Mystery Novels and in New Jersey Family Law Settlement Agreements

April 11, 2021 | Frank Marciano

Businesspeople understand that, when they prepare to sign a commercial contract, they should proceed with great care and caution, as there may be millions of dollars on the line in the fine print of that document. Even if your settlement agreement in your divorce or child support case doesn’t implicate millions of dollars, it is nevertheless just as important and impactful to you (if not more so,) which means that you should take utmost care to protect your financial situation by making sure you are armed with the knowledge you need. That definitely includes advice and counsel from a skilled Hoboken family law attorney.

A good attorney, for example, can potentially save you from the damaging impacts of an incomplete agreement. A case that started in nearby Bergen County is a good example. The couple, A.C. and J.C., married in 1998, had a daughter in 2000 and divorced in 2007. The spouses agreed that the father would pay 100% of the costs of the daughter’s college expenses, up to $30,000 per year, but would provide no other support after the daughter turned 18.

One of the key factors that fueled the parents’ agreeing to these terms was that the daughter planned to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and live on campus. The cost of tuition, room and board, fees and books at FIT in 2016 was just slightly more than $30,000 per year.

What’s in a Name? Possibly a Lot if You’re a Parent of a Minor Child in New Jersey

November 19, 2019 | Frank Marciano

If you studied Shakespeare in English class, you may remember the lines from Romeo and Juliet that say “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” If you’ve studied Dale Carnegie, you may have crossed a quote from the famed lecturer that says a “person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Unavoidably, names are important things. After a divorce, you are, of course, free to change your name. However, what options do you have when it comes to your children’s names? Does the law allow you to change their names, too? The answer is “Yes, potentially.” To make sure you have what you need to win this kind of name-change case, you should be sure you have skillful representation from an experienced Hoboken family law attorney to give the court what you need to succeed.

Recently, the Appellate Division court had to address this issue. The couple at odds were ex-spouses who separated after only five months. At the time the couple separated, the wife was four months pregnant. Two weeks after the separation, the couple agreed to a consent order. Paragraph 10 of that order laid out the first, middle and last names to be given to the unborn child.

College Costs and Your Property Settlement Agreement in New Jersey, Be Aware !

September 29, 2019 | Frank Marciano

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A receipt lists the typical costs of sending your child to college.

In most divorce situations, the more collaboratively the two spouses work to craft a solution with which both are comfortable (or as comfortable as possible,) the better. That’s especially true if the two are not only spouses but also parents. Collaboration often equates to longer lasting solutions that are more healthy and productive for both spouses involved.

Working collaboratively can save spouses a lot of time and money. However, there are some savings that may not be worth it. One way that some spouses may try to save money in working out a settlement agreement is doing so without legal representation. While some divorcing couples may be able to navigate the process on their own, proceeding without the right Hoboken family law attorney is filled with possible risk.

When it comes to negotiating your divorce settlement agreement, the advice and advocacy of your attorney can be essential. If the agreement you sign isn’t what you really need, there can be serious problems down the road. Look at the case of S.B. and M.E., a couple from Hudson County who had two children together. When they ended their marriage in 2001, theirs was an uncontested divorce. They worked out all their issues in a settlement agreement.

What Happens to a Parent’s New Jersey Child Support Obligation When the Minor Child Moves in With Him/Her?

September 19, 2019 | Frank Marciano

There are many reasons a child might go from living with one parent to living with the other. That change might be the decision of the parents or, in the case of an older child, the parents might allow that mature older child to have a voice in the choice. That child’s relocation may impact a lot of things, including child support. If your teenage child goes from living with your ex-spouse to living with you, then the law says that, generally, you are entitled to a change in child support.

It may mean that, going forward, neither parent pays. Alternately, it may mean that you go from paying your ex-spouse to receiving payments from your ex-spouse. Either way, a modification is often in order. Getting that change is not automatic when your child moves in with you, though. You have to go through a specific legal process to get your child support modified, so you should have an experienced New Jersey family law attorney representing you and guiding you through the process.

To get an idea how this works, we can look at a recent court case involving a Hunterdon County family. The facts went like this: mother and father married in 1993, had a son in 2001 and divorced in 2003. At the time of the divorce, both parents agreed that the son would live with the mother and that the father would have visitation one night per week and every other weekend. The father also agreed to pay child support.