Weddington Child Support Lawyer

Child Support Attorney in Weddington, NC

One of the biggest disputes between divorced parents tends to be child support. In divorce proceedings, one of the outcomes of the settlement tends to be a schedule of payments made by the noncustodial parent to the primary caretaker as monetary support for their child. Regardless of your position in the determination of child support payments, the legal team at Lehnhardt Price Family Law is well-versed in child support hearings and can help you either receive or send the support needed for your child. Our practice in Weddington revolves around family law, and ensuring that your family is in the right place for negotiations around child support is an essential part of our services.

What Is Child Support?

Child support is regular payments made by the parent who does not have primary custody over their child as a form of financial support for the children. From tuition payments for private schools to money surrounding medical bills, child support payments go beyond the payments for typical items such as food and clothing. Some of the main factors that go into the price calculation for child custody payments include:

• Income of both parents
• Total number of children shared by both parents
• Any prior child support payment plans
• Specific needs attributed to children that need special medical or educational attention

All these factors are essential to the negotiation of child support payments. They work alongside other arrangements like property distribution to determine the payment plan that follows your divorce settlement. For example, if you, as the primary caretaker of your child, make significantly less than your ex-spouse, your income difference will play a considerable factor in the way your child’s support payments are set up, helping you properly care for your child. These negotiations, as well as the subsequent plans set up by them, all help to provide care for your child and support you as their primary caregiver.

Child Support: Married vs. Unmarried Parents

Depending on your marital status, your child support payments are usually the result of divorce; however, for unmarried parents, the process of determining a schedule for child support payments requires various levels of testing and evaluation of both parties. In both situations, the factors that go into negotiating a child support payment plan can vary. The main differences between child custody agreements for married couples and unmarried couples include:

• Married parents. One of the main inciting incidents for child support payments concerning married couples is a divorce settlement. In a divorce, various obligations, namely child custody and financial responsibilities, are split between both spouses. As a result of this split, one of the parents is usually named the primary caretaker of the child, and the other is deemed the noncustodial parent. As the name suggests, the primary caregiver of a child is responsible for taking care of that child, whereas the noncustodial parent is typically given the responsibilities of child support as compensation. That being said, the process of child support and child custody go hand in hand, and both are typically settled and discussed during divorce proceedings.
• Unmarried parents. In cases where the parents of the child in question are not married, a paternity test is the main determining factor for solidifying the biological parents of a child. Once paternity can be established, the same process used to determine child support in cases of divorce can be applied to these proceedings, and once a firm payment schedule is outlined and agreed upon, the payments can start.

The various factors that go into child support payments are all very nuanced, but the biggest one by far is the marital status of the parents. At Lehnhardt Price Family Law, we offer expert legal teams able to create a comprehensive breakdown of your finances, marital status, and payment abilities that all go into the process of determining child support payment plans.

What Factors Can Change Child Support in Weddington, NC?

Depending on your child’s age, as well as the employment status or income amount of you and your child’s co-parent, the payment plans for your child support determined by past rulings may be outdated or unable to fulfill the needs of your child. For example, if you as a noncustodial parent begin making less money than you could afford at the beginning of your child support agreement, renegotiation of the terms you had previously outlined can factor in these salary changes and make your payment plans more manageable. On the other hand, if your child requires any special education or health services not previously known about before, as a primary caregiver, you can request an increase in payments as a way to deal with these new expenses.

What Happens If I am Not Receiving My Child Support Payments?

Sometimes, grudges between parents can make systems like child support extremely complicated, creating a hostile dynamic and causing problems for your child. Co-parenting and child support are extremely important, especially in situations where both parents are not together, so when the flow of money from one parent to another is interrupted, the one facing the most adverse side of this dilemma is your child. Before bringing these matters to court, the best option for rectification is to seek a solution between both parents and work out any kinks in your established plan. If this is not an option, or one party is purposely withholding payments and will not budge on a resolution, bringing the issue to court can be the only option to restoring your child support payments.

How to Negotiate Child Support in Weddington, NC

As with any legal case, finding the right team to take up your legal matters and go to court is the first step toward settling your claim. In the case of child support and child support payments, finding the right legal team to negotiate and solidify a payment plan that works with you and your co-parent is imperative to your child’s well-being.

At Lehnhardt Price Family Law, we understand the sensitivity of issues like these and offer our services to primary caretakers looking for child support and noncustodial parents looking to renegotiate previously agreed-upon terms that are no longer working with your arrangement. For help with your child support-related legal needs, contact us and schedule your consultation today.