CS and a new job

[crayiii]

Posted this on Soc's board too...


Child support has not been set in my case yet. We have a hearing sometime in Oct. for the amount to be determined. I currently live in Southern Oregon and my wife (Divorce is not final) moved to Spokane, WA with our son without my "permission". The travel cost is a major financial hardship for excersising my parenting time. In fact, I will be filing Chapt. 7 next week.

I am looking at moving to Spokane but the job market (in my field) is very limited there and I will need to switch fields. I am looking at the possibility of a $30,000+ pay cut when I move. After the chapt. 7, I will be able to live on the new salary but I'm concerned that the court will consider this being "voluntarily underemployed" and set CS based on my previous salary.

Do you have any insight on this? Will I be punished for moving closer and having to take a lower paying job?

My son is too young to transfer planes so he can only fly direct flights.  That means right now he flys into Portland and I drive 5.5 hours each way to pick him up.  This will be very dangerous in the winter as there are two passess (5000') that we would have to go over.

My salary would still be over the state's "standard" that they use for umputing income.

[wendl]

Washington is pretty good about this, usually if you explain that you took a lower paying job to be closer to your child and cut down on the travel expenses they won't look down on it.

I know how hard it is to take a huge pay cut, when dh and I moved to MT we both took pay cuts. BUT we are healthier and happier, so it was worth it for us.  

Also Idaho isn't far from Spokane, what is the job market like their???

**These are my opinions, they are not legal advice**