child support mod CA

[mishelle2]

Soc,

ok, so I checked into the Fl guidelines and since bm mother makes 1500+ more per month than me, and FL guideilnes use combined net income to determine child support I would actually pay more in Fl.

So I will send DCSS letter asking for updated I & E's from bm and go from there.
Thanks

..Ok I sent request for updated I&E's for bm,

questions:

1. How long before court hearing do they have to give me copies of new I&E's?  
2. Since it is a phone hearing will they have to send them to me prior to date, so I am properly served?
3. What happens if they do not receive updated I&E"s from bm?

4. If I put in amount for presumed income, what is a reasonable % of an increase for 2 years? 10% raise? or more?

5. Do I send in a supporting dec asking for the presumed income and send in copies of guideline calcs with those numbers?
6. Do I put in Travel expenses, or should I leave them out and let judge decide on Travel?

thanks

[socrateaser]

>questions:
>
>1. How long before court hearing do they have to give me
>copies of new I&E's?  

Two days prior.

>2. Since it is a phone hearing will they have to send them to
>me prior to date, so I am properly served?

Yes.

>3. What happens if they do not receive updated I&E"s from bm?

Nothing, unless you object at the beginning of the hearing. I suggest that you propose to impute income based on evidence that you present, and request that the 2 year old I&Es be disallowed into evidence as proof of current income, but admitted only to prove earning capacity as of two years ago.

>4. If I put in amount for presumed income, what is a
>reasonable % of an increase for 2 years? 10% raise? or more?

You can't pull a number out of the air. You need evidence to base your numbers on. Go to websites of U.S. Department of Labor, the Federal Reserve Board, FL Dept. of Labor, etc., and try to determine the cost of living changes in FL for someone who works in the same locale and job as the other parent. Salary.com may be able to help, as well. You could also print out advertisements for similar work in the area where the other parent lives, and you could contact a temporary work company and tell them that you need work in that field and try to get them to tell you what kind of money you can expect to earn. Unforntunately, this last step would require something in writing from them for the hearing, and you're not likely to get that.

After you put together all of your evidence, then you need to submit it to the court as a supplimental affidavit in support of your motion to modify, because CS hearings are done entirely on evidence submitted in advance with the pleadings, and it's almost a certainty that if you try to offer any evidence that wasn't served on DCSS in advance, then you will be denied.

>
>5. Do I send in a supporting dec asking for the presumed
>income and send in copies of guideline calcs with those
>numbers?

Yes, but you need supporting evidence to impute income. You must ultimately prove:

1. That the other parent has talent, ability, and experience to work in a certian field;
2. That work in that field is available in the locale where the parent resides, and;
3. That the parent is not working to the earning capacity proven in #1-2, above.

If you prove all three with credible evidence, then the court MUST impute income based on your calculations, unless the other parent demonstrates that it is not in the child's best interests that he/she works to earning capacity. And there is a strong presumption in the case law that both parents must work if work is reasonably available, and that children will just have to deal with that reality.

Only parents with VERY young children get a break, generally, and not for too long.

So, you need your proof, and you need to show that you've done all your homework, and that the other parent is basically hiding something, because she either won't produce the required I&Es, or her I&Es have some major defect, which is why I suggest that you try to keep them out, if they are even one second later than two days before the hearing, on grounds that you haven't had any time to analyze them for their accuracy.

>6. Do I put in Travel expenses, or should I leave them out and
>let judge decide on Travel?

You ask for EVERYTHING YOU WANT AND MORE, and take less. If you ask for only what you want or less, you will get less than less than what you want.

[mishelle2]

Soc,

1.Can I request current I&E's from the bm?
2. Since she did not respond to request from DCSS , they may not have her current address, Should I email her and tell her to contact DCSS as they need current income information for her?

[socrateaser]

>Soc,
>
>1.Can I request current I&E's from the bm?

Sigh...we're starting to go around in circles, so I'm gonna try to explain EXACTLY how the system really works so that you can go do whatever you want, because I can't keep telling you the same thing over and over, and have you ignore my advice, which is what you've been doing, even though you're probably not aware of it. So, please read carefully, because you've just reached the outer limits of my charitable nature:

You can "request" anything you want, but the other parent has no legal obligation to provide you with the documents, UNLESS you file a motion to modify with the court, so as to join the other parent to the action as a party.

This is complicated but it's like this: federal law imposes requirements on the states to get matching tax dollars from the feds for collecting support. One of those requirements is to offer legal services on the child's behalf to obtain support for the parent. In this way, the government avoids the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, because if the state were to offer legal services to one or the other parent, then that would violate fundamental fairness unless the state provided legal services to both parents. So, instead, the state provides legal services to the CHILD.

When you file an action with DCSS (or CSE or whatever it's called in other jurisdictions), you are asking the state to initiate a support action for the child's benefit. The other parent is only a witness to this action, and you are effectively the defendant, with the state as prosecutor. In short, when an NCP files for help from DCSS, that NCP is asking the government to act as the child's representative in an action against the NCP.

You may as well throw a rock at a policeman.

However, the parents both have the independent legal right to ask a court to modify CS, and if you do this, then the other parent is converted from a third party witness in the case of the DCSS v. YOU, to the other party in the case of YOU v. HER.

And, when a person is a party to a case, that person must produce discovery documents, such as the I&Es on request, or face contempt sanctions for failing to do so.

But, as you decided to not follow my advice and chose instead to deal through DCSS, the only way that you can obtain the requested documents is through DCSS, because they are the other party, and they have the only duty to discover relevant information, without a subpoena.

You could subpoena the other parent to produce the documents, but as she doesn't live in the county where the action is occuring, you would have to file a commission for a deposition in the FL county where she does live, and then obtain a local subpoena and depose her and copy the documents in FL. All of which is incredibly expensive, and is the reason why all of this federal law was created -- to permit parents to avoid traditional due process requirements and get at the other parent, wherever he/she resides so as to obtain child support, without any extra expense.

So, that's where it's at. You can legitimately demand that DCSS produce the I&Es, but if the other parent, who is currently only a witness to the DCSS action, refuses to comply, then there's nothing that DCSS can do about the uncooperative nature of its witness. Your only options then are to either ask the court to impute the other parent's income based on some well-reasoned set of facts, and because DCSS doesn't have the real facts, on account of their witness hiding those facts, the court will be highly disposed to grant your request, IF YOU DO WHAT I AM TELLING YOU TO DO as far as putting your evidence together in a manner that will permit the court to make a reasonable decision.

If you don't, the court will smile, and use the 2 year old I&Es and advise you to seek legal counsel the next time you want to modify support.

Or, you can file a separate action to modify support and withdraw your DCSS action, and put yourself in the position where you should be: as a party in an action against the other parent, rather than as a party in an action against the State of California, with the other parent as a witness.

>2. Since she did not respond to request from DCSS , they may
>not have her current address, Should I email her and tell her
>to contact DCSS as they need current income information for
>her?

This question is a non sequitur. Why in the world would you think that the other parent will do anything to help you make your case against her? Undoubtedly, someone at DCSS has told her that if she refuses to produce the I&Es, that there isn't squat you can do about it, because, DCSS doesn't know that you have access to someone like me who is trying desparately hard to explain how this !@#$%^ up system works, so you don't get squashed like a bug during the hearing.

Now, I've given you about $2,000 worth of legal advice in this thread, and I think it's time for you to start doing what I advise rather than trying to come up with ways to avoid doing the hard work of preparing for your hearing -- so, go now, my child and get thoust shiteth togetherith before it is too late.

[mishelle2]

:)