Child Support

[jcsct5]

Ca

My ex and I have been going back and forth as to what number is guidleline. We agree on all numbers except that he wants his medical expenses to be treated as medical insurance instead of medical expenses.

This results in a difference of approx $85 a month. Ex says he calculated guideline at $1049 and then said he will only agree to $1000 a month and only if I agree to no wage garnishment and no DCSS. Then he continued on "If you continue to demand more than that, I will be forced to contact my lawyer for more of an aggressive approach. Of course if the children add more custody with me this will change child support."

I am asking that CS be set at Guideline (I calculate at $1122) unless he can prove that the medical expense are truely insurance costs. And the standard wage garnishment through DCSS.

Ex and his wife were having medical issues and begged me to not file paperwork with the courts so that they could have time to address these issues. Ex has agreed in an email that he will make any changes to CS retroactive to April 1st since I agreed to wait to file papers.

1) Do you think that his email agreement to make changes retroactive to April 1st will hold up in court if he changes his mind?

2) Would his comments that if I don't agree to less than guideline he will seek a more agressive approach, indicating taking me to court for more custody, qualify as extortion?

Thank you Soc.

[socrateaser]

>1) Do you think that his email agreement to make changes
>retroactive to April 1st will hold up in court if he changes
>his mind?

You can "equitably estop" support to be retroactive to April 1st if you changed your position in reliance on his prior statement, and you were prejudiced by the change. In layperson's language this means that you must show that "but for" the agreement, your actions would have resulted in a greater amount of child support had you filed for support immediately, instead of waiting.

>2) Would his comments that if I don't agree to less than
>guideline he will seek a more agressive approach, indicating
>taking me to court for more custody, qualify as extortion?

No. Negotiation as part of a legal action (or when an action is clearly pending) is not considered extortion, although, it may be proof of bad faith which can give the court a reason to refuse to discharge a party from a contractual obligation. In this case, the other parety is simply saying if you don't agree to my terms, I will litigate and you will lose.

However, child support in CA is considered a pure math calculation. If you go to the court and you cannot agree in advance, the court will simply run the numbers and this means that unreimbursed insurance costs will be split either 50/50 or apportioned based upon the parties' respective incomes.

The only ways that a parent can increase/decrease support is to increase/decrease parenting time, or a custodial parent can increase it by demonstrating a need for job-related daycare, and the non-custodial parent can decrease it by showing a need for transportation costs incident to exchanges of the children.

But, other than that, it's pretty much just plug in the income numbers and legal tax deductions, and out pops the payment.

In short, the other parent's threats are pretty hollow unless he has a good case to substantially increase his parenting time.