CHILD SUPPORT LAWYER
Barrie child support lawyer. For the most part, the question of how to calculate child support is simple to answer. Although family cases used to involve fighting over budgets and children’s needs, today most of our clients simply use the Child Support Guidelines. These are tables that take into account each parent’s income and the number of children in a family, and decide the amount of support that should be payable every month to the parent who has custody of the children.
However, the topic is not always as cut-and-dry as it appears. There are many fine points that still need to be determined. For example:
- Parents who are self-employed, or who earn far more or far less than the average Canadian, may need to adjust the Table amounts.
- Stock options, commissions, bonuses and other parts of a parent’s income may be more difficult to quantify than a basic salary.
- Allowances may be made for business expenses and deductions.
- Special and extraordinary expenses may need to be determined. These include nannies, daycare and extracurricular activities that cost more than what is expected such as private training with an Olympic swimming coach instead of regular swimming lessons.
- If both parents share custody, the Table amounts may be adjusted to account for the amount of time that each parent takes care of the children.
- As the children grow and incomes and custody arrangements change, the amount will have to be adjusted.
- If either parent does not provide full financial disclosure, this can make the process more difficult.
Our Barrie child support lawyer can help you work out these issues, hopefully without recourse to the court system. Our priority will be your children and their right to a stable home environment, and to financial support that is fair and reasonable.