Friend of the Court Surrealism

[antonin]

I had my FOC hearing today. As you may recall, I was to receive a reduction in CS
That was calculated to be reduced "not less than 200.00 per week or 80% of the Friend of the Court Guidelines amount as calculated based upon Defendant's income and sole physical custody to the Plaintiff." When I began 50?50 custody.

As I listened to the referee go through the calculations, everything sounded right. After the hearing, I realized the referee had made the following errors:

1A) He counted mother's alimony as her income. (I believe the phrase above "as calculated based upon Defendant's income" means that only my income will be used and EX will be treated as she has no income.

2A) He did not apply the "not less than 200.00 per week or 80% of the Friend of the Court Guidelines" provision to the calculation: he used the full guidelines amount.

I got a 97.00 a month reduction based on his calculations. My support changes from 1007.00 a month to 910.00.

The result is that he made an error both against my EX and I. I am not sure what the actually dollar amount is. I will have to run the FOC software Monday when I get to work, but I believe I am paying 100.00 a more a month than I should according to the referee's calculations.

BUT HERE'S THE REAL ISSUE: in the course of the proceeding, I realized that I had not filed a Motion to Change Parenting Time. My lawyer (you have stated elsewhere that you believe some of the things he did could be considered malpractice) did not advise me to file a Motion To Change Parenting Time when I began alternating weekly custody in Oct. (And he certainly knew I was doing it).

The referee brought up the fact that a Motion to Change Parenting Time was not filed. Now, here is where I think the guy gave me a break. He said rather than have me file a Motion to Change parenting Time; he was going to place the recommendation that parenting time be alternated weekly in his recommendation to modify the support order so I would not have to file a Motion To Change Parenting Time.

He could have been a jerk and made me file the Motion .This would have placed me in a bad situation: the EX would have received the Motion and realized that she could cause me some real hell by objecting. I realize she can still object to the Motion as written, but the referee's recommendation to alternate weekly parenting time is worded in such a way as though it seems he is just verifying what has been happening since October.

The Ex does not use an attorney anymore, so she'll just look for the $$$$$ amount of the reduction and that will be it. Of course some clerk might catch the referee's error on the alimony and compute the CS as though she had no income, which would result in no reduction for me.

1) Should I just let the referee's recommendation become an order and do another Motion to Modify Child Support later to correct his errors? I do not want to jeopardize the fact that he allowed me to get away without filing a Motion to Change Parenting Time.
2) Will the fact that he made mathematical errors negate his recommendation to alternate weekly custody in his original order?
3) Is my analysis indicated in  "1A)", ( above, third paragraph) accurate concerning the use of EX's income in CS calculations?

[socrateaser]

>1) Should I just let the referee's recommendation become an
>order and do another Motion to Modify Child Support later to
>correct his errors? I do not want to jeopardize the fact that
>he allowed me to get away without filing a Motion to Change
>Parenting Time.

Alimony IS income to the recipient. The IRS taxes your ex on the alimony received.

>2) Will the fact that he made mathematical errors negate his
>recommendation to alternate weekly custody in his original
>order?

Not sure that he did miscalculate, but assuming he did, then No.

>3) Is my analysis indicated in  "1A)", ( above, third
>paragraph) accurate concerning the use of EX's income in CS
>calculations?

I don't know. I'd need to read your order again.