Important issues in Child Custody

New laws determined child support obligations from three major factors—the incomes of the parties, the number of children and the children’s ages. Once those three factors are known, a computer program can calculate a responsible parent’s obligation and the law requires the parties and the Court to follow it. The computer programs result in a document called “child support worksheets” and these must be attached to every order of child support to show the Court that the factors for setting support have been determined and that the amount of child support in the order matches the calculation on the worksheets. Of course, there are some situations which call for deviations from the standard calculation.

Some divorcing couples have equal time sharing residential schedules in which they each support the children equal amounts of time and then pay no child support to each other. Other people have children from other relationships and the law allows for consideration of that fact. Yet other people have unique financial circumstances which are cause for lowering or increasing child support amounts from the standard calculation. But the amount of child support, while important, is not the only issue.

There are other important issues regarding health insurance for the children, uninsured health care costs, tax exemptions, special expenses (such as daycare, educational expenses and extracurricular expenses) and college expenses which must be addressed and very important for the support of the children. There are a multitude of issues in a child support order and The Boyd Buckingham Law Office has had 24 years of experience dealing with the 1988 law and has represented families from Newcastle, Renton, Bellevue, Maple Valley, Auburn, Kent and Tukwila.

Boyd Buckingham was involved with interest groups who had input into the process of passing the new law and he knows all of the issues involved in creating a child support obligation. In 2010, the Legislature amended the child support law and increased the amount of support for children generally. It is important that parents understand the impact of the child support law when creating the obligation. The terms of the order are very specific and bad preparation can lead to substantial problems in the payment and collection of support obligations and can even result in the loss of a parent’s driver’s license if payments are not received timely.

Boyd Buckingham, lawyer, has spent 32 years dealing with these issues for clients located in Renton, Kent, Auburn, Seattle, Newcastle, Maple Valley, Tukwila, SeaTac and Bellevue. People have come to him from all over King County to handle their divorces because of his experience and his long time, highly trained staff. You will find that the professional staff of Boyd Buckingham Law Office is helpful, compassionate and accessible.