Los Angeles Family Lawyer Blog

Given the economic struggles that have overtaken Los Angeles and the rest of California, many parents are running into Court to reduce Child Support payments based on a lowering of income without an Attorney. Others are claiming they cannot work, so they have no income at all. While this can be a painful reality, the Court will not always play along with the concept of being unemployed, so Child Support cannot be paid, expecially if your ex-Spouse is being represented. Going it alone in Court can be a costly mistake, and making a statement in Court is often not the same as proving it so.

Imputed Income is the concept that if a person has the ability and opportunity to work, then they should be held to that standard. The idea is that it is not in the child's best interest to have a parent who stops working or fails to really seek a job in order to avoid paying Child Support to their ex-Spouse. While being involuntarily unemployed may be a more common scenario today, many Judges will often still hold someone to what they ought to be earning. Here are some factors to think about:

1. Has the spouse previously earned an income consistently, showing recent opportunity to work?
2. Does the education level of the spouse show an ability to work in a given field?
3. Has the spouse previously quit or were they laid off? This goes to the opportunity and ability arguments.
4. How affected by the economic downturn is the field or occupation that the spouse was working in?

For example, the Real Estate or Banking Industry may be more susceptible to the downturn than Healthcare or Education.

The basic common sense rule is that you can lead a person to a job opportunity, but you can't make them actually apply for the job. As a result, imputed income is just one way of combatting efforts to shirk responsibility of paying for one's Child Support.

A Los Angeles Family Law attorney can explore the area of Imputed Income if you feel that a spouse is not being held to their proper Child Support Obligation. If you are being forced into Court because your ex-spouse is claiming you should be working, a Family Law Attorney can help defend you if your unemployment is involuntary. Frazee/ Laron is a law firm that can help solve your family law problems and make sure your rights are being fairly represented.

Kirk Laron
Pasadena Family Law Attorney

While visitation necessarily turns upon the custodial parent's ability to make the child available for visitation, a custodial parent probably has sufficient control over a child of "tender years" to compel the child to visit with the other parent under the terms of the court order; and the custodial parent's failure to comply would thus be punishable by contempt.

Teenagers are a different breed. Although teenage children remain subject to their parents' control until age 18 or marriage, if a teenager refuses to visit with the noncustodial parent through no fault of the custodial parent, the noncustodial parent probably has no remedy. The California Court of Appeal held in 1987 that a mother of a 14-year old child could not be held in contempt because there was no showing that the mother had the ability to compel the child to visit.

Lesson learned. The noncustodial parent needs to make quality time with the teenager so that the teenager will want to visit with him/her. Sitting on the couch watching television and making out with a lover is not quality time with the teenager. Or having the teenager "hang out" with you and your friends and/or lover may not be enjoyable for the teenager. A child is visiting with YOU not your friends and needs your undivided attention during this visitation period no matter what age if you want to develop a parent-child bond and continuing relationship. Just because the noncustodial parent's child support will be reduced based upon the visitation time is no reason to force the teenager to visit; the teenager knows that reason. It is the noncustodial parent's duty to make the teenager want to visit and the custodial parent's duty to encourage the visitation. A family law attorney in Los Angeles can provide you the appropriate advice in when and how to go to Court effectively to modify child visitation and/ or child support.

-RoseAnn Frazee-
Pasadena Family Law Attorney

While visitation necessarily turns upon the custodial parent's ability to make the child available for visitation, a custodial parent probably has sufficient control over a child of "tender years" to compel the child to visit with the other parent under the terms of the court order; and the custodial parent's failure to comply would thus be punishable by contempt.

Teenagers are a different bred. Although teenage children remain subject to their parents' control until age 18 or marriage, if a teenager refuses to visit with the noncustodial parent through no fault of the custodial parent, the noncustodial parent probably has no remedy. The California Court of Appeal held in 1987 that a mother of a 14-year old child could not be held in contempt because there was no showing that the mother had the ability to compel the child to visit.

Lesson learned. The noncustodial parent needs to make quality time with the teenager so that the teenager will want to visit with him/her. Sitting on the couch watching television and making out with a lover is not quality time with the teenager. Or having the teenager "hang out" with you and your friends and/or lover may not be enjoyable for the teenager. A child is visiting with YOU not your friends and needs your undivided attention during this visitation period no matter what age if you want to develop a parent-child bond and continuing relationship. It is the noncustodial parent's duty to make the teenager want to visit and the custodial parent's duty to encourage the visitation.
-RoseAnn Frazee-

Many parents in Los Angeles think that they can simply make an agreement as to how much Child Support needs to be paid. While Spousal Support can often be decided by agreement amongst the parties, Child Support must be based on certain mandated factors that the Court must consider. Those factors are known as guideline support and are as follows:

• The income that both parents either earn or are able to earn.
• Actual time spent with each child
• How many children there are that qualify for support
• Tax filing status based on each parent's tax returns
• Health Insurance coverage
• Additional sources of money that help support the children
• Retirement Contributions that are mandated and not by choice
• Additional costs for the benefit of the child such as Daycare, Tutoring, etc.

Many times, parents think they can simply get an attorney to come into Court and make their own rationale for appropriate Child Support, but this is totally false. The Judical Officer must abide and consider these factors specifically or that Judicial Officer subjects themselves to an embarrassing appeal.

The real attorney's worth comes in making sure the Court is accurately and thoroughly informed about these factors, and is able to demonstrate why the current facts of the case no longer supports the Court's last Order due to a change in circumstances, law, or facts of the case. Contact a Family Law attorney in Los Angeles in order to get a straightforward, no nonsense consultation to see if your Child Support needs to be re-opened to your benefit.

Kirk Laron
Los Angeles Family Law Attorney