Child Support Modification – As Circumstances Change
As any parent of a teenager can tell you, as children get older, they get more expensive and sometimes, those expenses were not properly accommodated in the original NJ child support guidelines calculations. Especially for couples who divorced while their children were quite young, the idea of discussing automobile insurance or cell phone bills for a three year old seems rather unusual or perhaps at the time you didn’t know your child was going to be a world-class violin player, touring the world and requiring specialized training and the expenses that go along with it, but as circumstances change and children get older and more involved in everyday life, the need for such agreements become paramount.
Another common area of disagreement between divorced individuals is that of physical custody issues surrounding their children. Commonly referred to as “child custody,” this specific part of the parenting plan deals with where the children are physically located at any given time which may change over the years as children get older or one spouse perhaps takes on a more demanding career. Naturally this is important from a parenting perspective but also for the calculation of the New Jersey Child Support guidelines as parenting time – the number of overnights the children spend with each parent – is one of the primary factors in the equation.
In both of these instances, discussing post divorce child support modifications will be a critical part of maintaining the constructive nature of your parenting relationship. With the assistance of an Accredited Professional Mediator you and your ex-spouse can work through the issues you need to resolve for the sake of your children without having to take a more contentious route of going to court or hiring an attorney as who knows better what your children need than their mom and dad?
By sitting with both of you and getting to know you, your new families and your children, we can either develop a new plan or modify an existing plan so that it works for everyone now and in the future and help you calculate various scenarios to show you what a possible child support modification would look like. By working with you to develop options of your own creation or by bringing to the table what has worked for others, our years of experience with developing parenting plans for couples all across the State of NJ will be a valuable asset to you.
No matter what situation you find yourself in, post divorce mediation has worked for thousands of couples throughout New Jersey and it can work for you too. Should you have any specific questions regarding modifying child support in your particular situation, please contact us to set up an appointment for you and your ex-spouse either via telephone or in one of our many convenient Northern or Central New Jersey locations where we will learn more about the specifics of your situation and help guide you to a solution that works for each of you and puts the needs of your children first.
