California Child Support Laws, Golden State

Both parents have a legal duty to provide financial support for their children. In California, as in most other states, the court may order either or both parents to make regular child support payments that cover a child’s living and medical expenses.

California’s child support agency is administered through the Department of Child Support Services. This agency can help both custodial and non-custodial parents with a number of child support related services such as establishing paternity, locating a non-custodial parent, establishing, enforcing, and modifying child support orders, and collecting and distributing child support payments.

Establishing Paternity for California child support laws

Your child’s paternity must be established before child support can be ordered. Establishing legal paternity gives your child many rights, including child support, access to medical records, government benefits and more.

There are several methods you can use to establish the paternity of your child. The simplest method for establishing paternity is to complete a Paternity Opportunity Program Declaration. This form must be filled out and signed by both parents to establish paternity without going to court. If necessary, California’s child support agency can assist you in establishing the paternity of your child by helping you get free or low-cost genetic testing when the child’s father is in question.

If the child’s father lives in another state, California’s child support agency can work with the other state’s agencies to obtain genetic testing, establish a child support order and enforce child support payments.

Paying California child support laws

Once a child support order has been established, the non-custodial parent will generally be required to continue making payments until the minor child emancipates or until otherwise noted in the child support order. Under California law, a parent’s obligation to pay support continues until the child becomes eighteen years of age. Under certain circumstances (if the child is unmarried and attending high school full time), the current support obligation may continue until the child is nineteen.

Modifying California child support laws

In order to modify a child support order, you must contact your local child support agency to request a modification of the child support order and then cooperate in the review process by providing the requested financial and visitation information.

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Variations to Child Support Law

Child support laws determines the financial responsibility to the children of divorced spouses. The non-custodial parent pays for the child’s living expenses, and it is a family law attorney who specializes in child support law.

Child support laws ensure the non-custodial parent shares the financial responsibility of their children. While the law may order both fathers and mothers to pay for the child’s living expenses, traditionally, fathers have born this expense. However, with more women in the workplace and joint custody agreements on the increase, this is not always the case.

Since support laws for children change in different states, you have to ensure you choose an attorney who is well versed with the laws of the state in which divorce has been filed. However as these laws are rather broad, they can be customized to individual family requirements.

Variations of these laws

Enforced compliance: After a divorce, the non-custodial parent may neglect or refuse to honor court-ordered obligations to their child. Most states address ‘deadbeat dad’ issues by garnering the responsible parent’s wages to prevent late or absent payments.

Calculation of financial obligations: According to federal law, independent states have independent guidelines that determine how much a court can order as child support. These laws were created to ensure uniformity in child support amount, no matter the judge or litigants, although formulas vary. Check your state’s child support calculator to determine the obligation. These are easily found online. Be sure to specify the state in which your child is a legal resident.

The effect of a parent’s remarriage on child support: While the step-parent is not legally responsible for the step-child unless or until said child is adopted, the court may take into consideration the step-parent’s income while calculating support payments. Based on the circumstances, the custodial parent’s financial situation usually changes with a remarriage, prompting the re-evaluation.

Period of child support: All U.S. states require that a parent pay support until the child attains their majority. However, in some states, the parent is obligated to pay the child support throughout their schooling, or may be terminated should the child joins the armed services.

Recalculation of child support payment: Changes in life can affect a parent’s financial position or the child’s monetary needs. With the provision of recalculating support payments in child support laws, support will be reevaluated if a parent loses a job or endures other financial straits. Responsibility for medical expenses, including health insurance, is usually included in the initial agreement. However, in catastrophic situations, this may again require recalculation.

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Child Support Laws and the History

Child Support

Child support can be traced back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the young ages of the nineteenth century, the United States courts that handled cases of marital breakdowns and divorce, discovered that the present laws did not provide for a support action. The United States had inherited many of the English laws in that time, and those laws discovered that a father had a non-enforceable duty to support his children. In fact, English precedents forbade and third party from recovering that cost of support unless the cost was pre-approved by a notarized letter with the father.

In 1601, The Elizabeth Poor Law authorized local parishes to claim some of the funds they spent while caring for the custodial parent and their children who were not taking care of by the non-custodial parent. But this statue would only be prevailed on the mother and her children if they were extremely poor.

Child Support becomes the law

Child support continued to develop into the early 1900′s. In 1950, the United States Congress pass the first federal child support enforcement legislation having state welfare agencies to inform the appropriate enforcement officials when it became necessary to provide aid to parents with children who had no support by the other parent.

In 1975, Child Support saw big changes, not just for the collection of support, but also for child support enforcement. The Social Security Act, was signed into law on the 4th of January 1975.

In 1984, the next big year for child support laws, when the Child Support Enforcement Amendments were established, requiring improvements in state and local enforcement programs. First, every state in America were required to develop income withholding from all non-custodial parents paying child support. States were also allowed to report any delinquent parents to consumer credit agencies if they were past due on their payments.

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