Georgia Child Support Law

Divorce, Child Support & Family Law Attorneys in Atlanta, Alpharetta, and Athens, GA

As with Georgia child custody, Georgia child support can be hotly contested during a divorce. Interestingly, Georgia’s child support laws allow for a wide array of possibilities between spouses, including holding both parents (regardless of gender), or only parent (again regardless of gender) responsible for paying child support until a child is 20 years old, dies, graduates from high school, marries, is emancipated, or joins the military.

Generally speaking, in Georgia the non-custodial parent in a divorce is often required to pay child support to the custodial parent for the child’s living expenses. The amount and duration of the child support obligation will vary widely from family to family, and will depend on circumstances include the gross income of each parent, the potential income of each parent, the cost of health insurance and medical expenses, school expenses, food and general living expenses, and more. With so much at stake, we suggest that when dealing with a child support issue you have an experienced child support attorney on your side to protect your interests and the interests of your children. With offices in Atlanta, Alpharetta and Athens, our experienced child custody attorneys are here to help.

The New Georgia Child Support Laws

On January 1, 2007, the laws governing child support in Georgia changed. The recent law is based on an “income shares” model which looks at the gross income of both husband and wife. “Gross income” is defined broadly and includes salary, commissions, self-employment income, bonuses, overtime, severance pay, pension income (if it is recurring), interest income, dividend income, trust income, capital gains, gifts, prizes, lottery winnings, and income from a variety of other sources. After the gross income of both the husband and wife is determined, both gross incomes are added together which results in what is called the “combined adjusted income” amount. After this is establish, a “Georgia Child Support Obligation Table” is utilized to retrieve a “Basic Child Support Obligation,” which is then applied to each parent’s proportionate share of the combined adjusted income. Confusing? The new Georgia child support guidelines can be complex, and we recommend seeking the advice of one of our child custody lawyers to help you better understand how the new child support law will affect you.

Georgia Child Support Modifications

It is important to note that under Georgia law, child support payments may be modified if there has been a material change in circumstances from when the original child support order was issued. Oftentimes the loss of a job, changes in the cost of medical insurance, or a wide variety of other factors would be sufficient for our family law attorneys to petition the court to change the amount of your child support payments.

Getting Started

If you are dealing with a GA child support or child support enforcement issue, we advise you to speak with one of our divorce and child support lawyers sooner rather than later. The process can be intense and sometimes intimidating, and the help of an experienced attorney will be invaluable in helping you protect your interests and the interests of your children. For a typical divorce and child support case, our law firm retainer begins at $5,000.00. To talk with one of our family law attorneys about representing you, either fill out the brief form to your left or give us a call. For additional contact information and driving directions to our offices in Atlanta, Athens or Alpharetta, please visit our Contact Us pages. Thank you and we look forward to working with you.