Owing Child Support

 How Much Child Support am I Going to Owe?

I get calls every day asking this very question.  How much child support am I going to owe?  I also get the question of how can I pay less child support.

Child support is based upon a formula figured in a computer program.  The only thing that makes a difference is the numbers you put in.

Do I Have to Prove How Much Money I Make?

Part of the process of calculating child support is completing an affidavit verifying income and providing pay stubs to fill in the affidavit.  The second part of the process is signing the affidavit swearing that the numbers are correct.  So the short answer is, yes, you do have to show your income.

Is My Income the Only Consideration When it Comes to Calculating Support?

No, in addition to your income, the computer program takes into consideration how many over night visitations you have, if you are paying for health insurance and who is taking the income tax deduction.  Essentially, you can lower the amount of child support you have to pay by having more overnights.  That is not to say you should seek more overnights simply to reduce your child support.  Everything that is done in terms of child custody and child support is based upon the best interest of the child.  If the judge sees that your motivation in seeking more overnights is to decrease your support, it is very likely the judge will not grant additional overnight time to you.

How Do I Go About Changing or Updating My Child Support?

The first thing to do is to give us a call.  Whether the support is part of a divorce or is part of a modification one of our divorce attorneys can help you find the best answer.  We always offer a free consultation and we can give you a good idea of what to expect as far as your child support.  Give us a call and see what we can do for you.  Visit us on the web or give us a call, (208) 472-2383.  You will be glad you did.

You Just Found Out You Were Served Divorce Papers, Now What?

For some people the most shocking or earth shaking thing can be being served divorce papers.  For others, it can be a relief.  Whichever category you fall into, you need to make certain that you read the papers carefully.  Every divorce Petition comes with a Summons.  The summons will tell you that you need to respond within 21 days of being served and if you don't the judge can enter a judgment against you.

What is a divorce petition and how can it effect me?

The divorce petition contains many important parts.  In general there are 7 basic parts.  These are:

1. The statement of Jurisdiction
2. Information about the marriage
3. Information about the kids, if there are any
4. The grounds for divorce
5. The custody and support of the children
6. The division of the property
7. The division of the debt

A divorce petition is essentially a request of how you want the property and the debt divided and what you want the custody and visitation to look like.  If you don't respond to the divorce petition within the 21 days, the opposing party can take a default against you and get exactly what they asked for.  If you want something different or you believe that the other party has left out important things, it is essential that you respond.

How do you respond to a divorce Petition and do you need a lawyer?

The court requires that you file certain uniform paperwork and pay your filing fee.  Some people can get a divorce on their own without the help of a divorce attorney.  The biggest issue folks run into is that the paperwork that is used, while uniform, can and usually does need to contain certain language and certain terms in order for the person getting a divorce not to compromise their position.  The paperwork can be confusing and believe me, there is a lot of paperwork.  You also need to make sure that you comply with the proper rules when you file the paperwork.  Lastly, a divorce isn't just the language that is in the petition and the answer.  There is always a lot of negotiation going on between the divorce attorneys trying to get the best conditions and outcomes for their clients.

What should I expect the time frame for a divorce to be?

There is no cut and dry time frame for a divorce to be completed.  If the divorce is uncontested and the parties stipulate to the outcome, it can be done in as little as 4-6 weeks.  Other divorces seem to go on and on, stretching into years.  It goes without saying that the quick divorce happens because the parties agree.  The long divorce linger on generally because of high conflict.  Often the high conflict centers around the children.

How do I get an attorney to take my case?

It all starts with a phone call.  Whether you are responding to a divorce petition or you are the party initiating the divorce.  Give our office a call at (208) 472-2383 and one of our divorce lawyers will provide you with a free consultation.  We will answer your questions and outline the process for you.  Give us a call.  You will be glad you did.  Visit us on the web.

Custody and Divorce

What's the Difference?

Sometimes legal terms get confused when they are used interchangeably.  Divorce and Custody are good examples of that.  If you are getting a divorce and you have children, you will also be working on custody issues.  You could also seek custody of your child even if you were never married and are not in need of a divorce.

Custody as Part of a Divorce Action

When you have kids and you decide to get divorced, the Court has jurisdiction over those kids.  This means that as part of your divorce action, either you and your spouse, your attorneys through negotiation or the judge will decide who has the kids, when and under what terms.  This includes visitation, child support, custody, vacations, health care and everything else that goes along with having a child.  The court will also divide your property either on its own findings or based upon the agreement of the parties or mediation.  Ultimately, the court will also grant your divorce.

Custody as an Independent Action

If you were never married and have a child together, you can ask the court to determine paternity, custody, child support and all the other odds and ends of things that go along with having a child.  This action is essentially the same as the custody portion of a divorce.  The court has jurisdiction over children who have lived in the state for a period of greater than 6 months and therefore can decide who will have custody and what the visitation will look like.

Trends in Custody

It used to be that the mother was almost always given primary physical custody of a child pursuant to divorce or to a custody action.  Over the years the court has moved away from that presumption.  The court looks at the best interest of the child in determining what custody arrangement will be ordered.  The court looks at several factors in making that decision.  While I will discuss those factors in my next post, the important thing here is that custody arrangements these days vary greatly.  Many times the court will order a 50/50 schedule where the child changes households every seven or so days.  If the parties agree on what the custody will look like you can get all sorts of arrangements; basically whatever fits your schedules as well as the kids' schedule.

If you need to talk with a Boise Divorce Attorney give us a call and see what we can do for you. (208) 472-2383.

Military Divorce

Military Divorce

I get a lot of questions from folks about military divorce.  In general, these questions revolve around child custody with an active duty military parent, military retirement, service of process on a member of the military who is on active duty and child support.  Military divorce has many of its own issues that you don't find or which are handled differently than a regular divorce.

Service of Process

There are laws to protect service members who are deployed or on active duty.  In the civilian context, when you serve divorce papers on someone you can have them served at home or at work.  If you have them served at home there is not a requirement that they personally are served.  Anyone over 18 years of age in the household can be served the papers and that is effective service.  Once they are served, they have twenty days to respond to the complaint or a default may be taken against them.

Active military personnel are protected against this with the Service Members Civil Relief Act (previously known as the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act).  Not only can they not be served divorce papers, no divorce action may be taken against them while they are on active duty or immediately after the return from active duty.

Exercising Custody and Visitation While Deployed

Idaho allows a soldier to delegate their right to visitation and custody to another party by power of attorney.  What this means is that if a member of the armed services is deployed they can give their visitation rights to whomever they want (obviously within reason).  While it can and does cause irritation with the other parent, particularly if the right of visitation is given to a new partner or significant other, this allows a proxy to exercise regular and frequent contact while the service member is away on active duty.

Military Retirement

Military retirement and how it is divided is one of those things that have changed over time.  While a military spouse is entitled to half of the retirement acquired during their marriage, it hasn't always been that way.  At one point, maybe more, in Idaho law, military retirement belonged to the service member alone.

The division of military retirement requires specific paperwork to be divided correctly and for the proper accounting to be made.

Child Support

Believe it or not, there are issues with child support and military personnel.  These often revolve around the actual income of the soldier.  A soldier's income will include their regular pay, any disability the receive as well as any vouchers, housing or otherwise, that they receive.

If you need a divorce and want to speak with a Boise Divorce Attorney, give us a call at (208) 472-2383.  You will be glad you did.

Boise Family Law Attorneys - Idaho Divorce Lawyers

Family Law in Idaho
As a Boise Family Law Attorney people often ask me what family law means.  Family Law refers to that area of the law which deals with family relationship issues.  For example, when a couple gets a divorce, that action effects the family.  Domestic Violence is also an act that effects the family.  DV is handled in family court, as opposed to criminal court, even though assault and battery are a criminal action. If the underlying act, the assault and battery, are pursued, they can be taken to criminal court, however, the restraining order is established and effected by a family law judge.

Custody, modification and child support are also family law issues which may or may not be in the divorce context, but they are elements of the family law issues.   If you have a child outside of a marriage you will most likely have to deal with custody and child support issues, as well as modification, at some point during the child's life.  These issues effect the structure and the finances of the family.

Adoption and termination are other areas where Boise Family Law Attorneys practice family law.  These two issues both divide a family through termination and create a family through adoption.  The two go hand in hand because in order for a new parental relationship to be established the existing one, even if it is simply by having provided 1/2 of the chromosomes for the child, must be terminated.

Other Family Law Issues in Idaho
There are other issues which effect the family that are not necessarily considered family law issues, but none-the-less do effect the family and can be handled by a Boise Family Law Lawyer.  Elder law, for example, deals with laws effecting elderly members of our families.  Issues here might involve conservatorships, powers of attorney, living will and the like.  Here too there is a cross over with probate and estate planning law.  For example, the estate of an elderly family member must be in order if the probate after death is to go smoothly.  Perhaps, the elderly family member has removed their property from their estate with the use of a living trust.  These are all issues which attorneys deal with daily and in the context of family law.

If you have a family law issue and you would like to speak to one of our Boise Family Law Lawyers, please give us a call, (208) 472-2383 - you will be glad you did.

Modification in Idaho

Modification - What is it and What Does it Mean?
Modification refers to changing an existing court order.  It most often refers to changing the custody or the child support order.  There are certain requirements necessary to qualify for a modification.  For example, if you wanted to modify the existing custody arrangement, you would have to show that there has been a permanent and substantial material change in circumstances.  This allows continued consistency for the children and prevents changing the order simply because one party is unhappy with the arrangement. 

A child support order can be modified when there is a change in income.  This change would be expected to occur when one party gets a new job or is promoted.  The original rules, however, still apply and that is you cannot be voluntarily unemployed or under-employed.


When you modify an existing order you can do it in different ways.  You can do it by agreement.  Both parties attorneys will present the court with a stipulation and the judge will sign a new order.  If the other party does not agree with you and wants to fight the modification you will go through a hearing process.  Your attorney will present evidence as will the lawyer on the other side.  The judge will weigh the evidence and make a decision based upon this.  For child support, your attorney will run the income amounts through the child support guidelines and come to a new support amount.



Can a divorce be modified?  A divorce will not be modified, rather certain situations under a divorce will be, such as custody or child support.


What if a party to the divorce is not complying with the terms of the divorce?  This would fall under the matter of contempt.  When you are ordered by the court to do something and you don't you can be held in contempt of court.  Your divorce attorney will file a motion for contempt and you will go to court to show what the other party was supposed to do and how they did not do it.  The other party, by themselves, or through their divorce lawyer, can try and show why there actions were not contempt.