Arizona Child Support Laws

What Should I Expect During the First Meeting With My Divorce Attorney | Arizona

Mitchell Reichman

 

Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.

How can I make the most of my first meeting?

The way a client can make the most of their first meeting with me is to be organized and to bring me basic general information. So I want a simple statement of their assets and their liabilities. I’d like to see the most recent three years of tax returns. And I recommend the client bring notes. At least bullet points of the topics the client would like to cover in that first meeting.

Should I bring all of my records to the first meeting?

I don’t ask them to bring a lot of documents to the first meeting. We’re going to follow up and gather a lot of documents during the process. Certainly I would not want the to bring a box of records to the meeting. It would be very inefficient, very expensive for the client for me to be thumbing through a box of records in that first meeting.

What information are you looking for initially?

We’re looking for broad strokes of information. We want to identify in that first meeting what the assets are and what the liabilities are. To find out about their children. To know about income and expenses. To see if someone is going to be needing spousal maintenance for example. So just broadly identify the topics we’re going to need to address. We’re going to gather a lot of details along the way, but that wouldn’t be a useful way to spend our time the first meeting.

By: Mitchell Reichman

Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.

How can I make the most of my first meeting?

The way a client can make the most of their first meeting with me is to be organized and to bring me basic general information. So I want a simple statement of their assets and their liabilities. I’d like to see the most recent three years of tax returns. And I recommend the client bring notes. At least bullet points of the topics the client would like to cover in that first meeting.

Should I bring all of my records to the first meeting?

I don’t ask them to bring a lot of documents to the first meeting. We’re going to follow up and gather a lot of documents during the process. Certainly I would not want the to bring a box of records to the meeting. It would be very inefficient, very expensive for the client for me to be thumbing through a box of records in that first meeting.

What information are you looking for initially?

We’re looking for broad strokes of information. We want to identify in that first meeting what the assets are and what the liabilities are. To find out about their children. To know about income and expenses. To see if someone is going to be needing spousal maintenance for example. So just broadly identify the topics we’re going to need to address. We’re going to gather a lot of details along the way, but that wouldn’t be a useful way to spend our time the first meeting.

By: Mitchell Reichman

What is a Wage Assignment | Scottsdale Child Support

C.D. Owens

 

Wage Assignments

A wage assignment is something that the court does when the payer of child support is employed, if he has a job, an employer, somebody who pays him salary twice a month or once a month. The court will issue an order to his employer instructing him to deduct the amount of child support on the court’s order for child support from his salary each time a check is written to him.

So it can be twice a month, once a week, once a month and any changes that the employer wants to make, needs to make has to go through the court. If anyone has any difficulty with that, they are free to call us anytime.

By: CD Owens

Wage Assignments

A wage assignment is something that the court does when the payer of child support is employed, if he has a job, an employer, somebody who pays him salary twice a month or once a month. The court will issue an order to his employer instructing him to deduct the amount of child support on the court’s order for child support from his salary each time a check is written to him.

So it can be twice a month, once a week, once a month and any changes that the employer wants to make, needs to make has to go through the court. If anyone has any difficulty with that, they are free to call us anytime.

By: CD Owens

How to Enforce Child Support in Arizona | Phoenix Family Law

Joel Hoffman

 

Enforcing Child Support in Phoenix

Enforcement of child support is controlled by Arizona revised statute, title 25, starting at section 500. I find that many of my clients need me to return to court to pursue non-payment of a child support obligation.

Petition for Contempt

You can file a petition for contempt, requesting that the court one, determine the amount of child support arrearage, two, enter a finding of contempt, three, order incarceration with a purge clause for the payment of a lump sum amount to satisfy all or a portion of the arrearage, in order to avoid going to jail and four, enter a judgment for the unpaid child support amount with a repayment plan with accruing interest until the arrearage is paid in full.

Non-Compliance

If the other party fails to appear for court after being served with the petition, the court can even issue a child support arrest warrant. Finally, depending upon the amount of child support arrearage that is owed, the court can order the other party to attend regular monthly hearings through accountability court to monitor compliance with the child support court order. If you want to learn more about enforcing and collecting your child support court order, please contact me at Warner Angle, (602) 264-7101, to schedule a complimentary consultation. I look forward to meeting with you.

By: Attorney Joel Hoffman

Enforcing Child Support in Phoenix

Enforcement of child support is controlled by Arizona revised statute, title 25, starting at section 500. I find that many of my clients need me to return to court to pursue non-payment of a child support obligation.

Petition for Contempt

You can file a petition for contempt, requesting that the court one, determine the amount of child support arrearage, two, enter a finding of contempt, three, order incarceration with a purge clause for the payment of a lump sum amount to satisfy all or a portion of the arrearage, in order to avoid going to jail and four, enter a judgment for the unpaid child support amount with a repayment plan with accruing interest until the arrearage is paid in full.

Non-Compliance

If the other party fails to appear for court after being served with the petition, the court can even issue a child support arrest warrant. Finally, depending upon the amount of child support arrearage that is owed, the court can order the other party to attend regular monthly hearings through accountability court to monitor compliance with the child support court order. If you want to learn more about enforcing and collecting your child support court order, please contact me at Warner Angle, (602) 264-7101, to schedule a complimentary consultation. I look forward to meeting with you.

By: Attorney Joel Hoffman

How Do I Calculate Child Support in Arizona | Hildebrand Law, PC

Chris Hildebrand

 

How to Calculate Child Support in Arizona

I want to talk to you today about how you calculate child support in Arizona. The Arizona child support guidelines in turn, use what is referred to as an income shares model for the calculation of support.

We need to know both parent’s monthly gross income, from which a basic child support amount is derived from the guidelines and to that number we add in the cost of health insurance, the cost of daycare and if the children are in private school, then the private school expenses. Then we determine which of the two parents is a primary custodial parent.

By: Chris Hildebrand

How to Calculate Child Support in Arizona

I want to talk to you today about how you calculate child support in Arizona. The Arizona child support guidelines in turn, use what is referred to as an income shares model for the calculation of support.

We need to know both parent’s monthly gross income, from which a basic child support amount is derived from the guidelines and to that number we add in the cost of health insurance, the cost of daycare and if the children are in private school, then the private school expenses. Then we determine which of the two parents is a primary custodial parent.

By: Chris Hildebrand

What is Child Support | Phoenix Family Law

Erik Bergstrom

 

Phoenix Child Support

Child support is simply money paid by one parent to the other parent to assist in covering costs associated with minor children. In most cases, the parent who cares for the children most of the time will receive child support from the other parent. Child support has priority over all other financial obligations and is not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

In Arizona, child support is calculated according to a formula. The amount produced by the formula is the presumptive amount of support, although in appropriate cases, the court can deviate upward or downward from the guideline amount. Extracurricular activity expenses for the children are addressed separately, because the children’s activities typically change over time. A child support order will also assign responsibility for sharing in any medical costs for the children that are not covered by insurance, and will allocate the right to claim each child as a dependent on the parents’ income tax returns. If you would like me to prepare a sample child support worksheet for you, please contact me.

By: Attorney Erik Bergstrom

Phoenix Child Support

Child support is simply money paid by one parent to the other parent to assist in covering costs associated with minor children. In most cases, the parent who cares for the children most of the time will receive child support from the other parent. Child support has priority over all other financial obligations and is not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

In Arizona, child support is calculated according to a formula. The amount produced by the formula is the presumptive amount of support, although in appropriate cases, the court can deviate upward or downward from the guideline amount. Extracurricular activity expenses for the children are addressed separately, because the children’s activities typically change over time. A child support order will also assign responsibility for sharing in any medical costs for the children that are not covered by insurance, and will allocate the right to claim each child as a dependent on the parents’ income tax returns. If you would like me to prepare a sample child support worksheet for you, please contact me.

By: Attorney Erik Bergstrom

Can I Modify an Existing Child Support Order in Arizona?

Kip Micuda

 

An existing child support order can be modified if you are able to show a significant and continuing change of circumstances. And what I mean by that, is that you have a change in parenting time, in income, expenses, perhaps the insurance covering the child has changed, something that is related to child support that has changed. There’s basically two ways to go about doing it. One is what I’ll call a regular petition to modify child support. The other is a simplfied way of doing it. If you are able to show that the changed circumstances have the effect of a 15% change in child support, you can file your petition and if the other side does not respond to it, the change is automatic. The court signs an automatic order. If you have any other questions about changing a current order of child support, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is, (480) 305-8300. Thank you.

To modify an existing child support order, contact an Arizona divorce attorney.

By: Attorney Kip Micuda

An existing child support order can be modified if you are able to show a significant and continuing change of circumstances. And what I mean by that, is that you have a change in parenting time, in income, expenses, perhaps the insurance covering the child has changed, something that is related to child support that has changed. There’s basically two ways to go about doing it. One is what I’ll call a regular petition to modify child support. The other is a simplfied way of doing it. If you are able to show that the changed circumstances have the effect of a 15% change in child support, you can file your petition and if the other side does not respond to it, the change is automatic. The court signs an automatic order. If you have any other questions about changing a current order of child support, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is, (480) 305-8300. Thank you.

To modify an existing child support order, contact an Arizona divorce attorney.

By: Attorney Kip Micuda

Can I Modify an Existing Child Support Order? | Arizona

Michael Clancy

 

You can modify an existing child support order if you can show the court a substantial and continuing change of financial circumstances. What does that mean? Well, there’s a whole lot of factors that go into modifying a child support order. You can be spending more or less time with your child. You can be making more or less money. We’ll have to go through the list and see what the guidelines allow you to consider when modifying a child support order, but the general rule is 15%, up or down, that would change to make the change of circumstances substantial and continuing. But, if you’d like more information or want to talk to me more about modifying a child support order, feel free to give me an email.

By: Attorney Michael Clancy

You can modify an existing child support order if you can show the court a substantial and continuing change of financial circumstances. What does that mean? Well, there’s a whole lot of factors that go into modifying a child support order. You can be spending more or less time with your child. You can be making more or less money. We’ll have to go through the list and see what the guidelines allow you to consider when modifying a child support order, but the general rule is 15%, up or down, that would change to make the change of circumstances substantial and continuing. But, if you’d like more information or want to talk to me more about modifying a child support order, feel free to give me an email.

By: Attorney Michael Clancy

Parenting Coordinators | Arizona Family Law

Laurence B. Hirsch

 

What is a Parenting Coordinator?

Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.

Who are Parenting Coordinators?

Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.

Appropriate Issues

What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.

Non-Appropriate Issues

Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.

By: Laurence Hirsch

What is a Parenting Coordinator?

Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.

Who are Parenting Coordinators?

Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.

Appropriate Issues

What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.

Non-Appropriate Issues

Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.

By: Laurence Hirsch

How Does Visitation Affect Child Support | Scottsdale Family Law

C.D. Owens

 

How Child Custody Can Impact Child Support

Visitation significantly effects child support. For example, if two divorcing parties, a divorcing party agree that their going to be adult about recognizing that a child needs both parents and agree therefore to share visitation, custody of the kids, they will have a week on week off or they’ll have five-two-two weekly application of time and whatever they decide is going to really effect visitation. A 50-50 sharing of the time with the kids with a situation where two people make almost the same amount of money a month, will result in no child support.

If the father however has every other weekend with one day in the intervening week, one night in the intervening week, he’s gonna have substantial child support, particularly if he makes substantially more money, earns more than the mother does. So, it’s a complicated situation, one of the most difficult ones that parents have to make and we’re always there to help them if we can.

By: CD Owens

How Child Custody Can Impact Child Support

Visitation significantly effects child support. For example, if two divorcing parties, a divorcing party agree that their going to be adult about recognizing that a child needs both parents and agree therefore to share visitation, custody of the kids, they will have a week on week off or they’ll have five-two-two weekly application of time and whatever they decide is going to really effect visitation. A 50-50 sharing of the time with the kids with a situation where two people make almost the same amount of money a month, will result in no child support.

If the father however has every other weekend with one day in the intervening week, one night in the intervening week, he’s gonna have substantial child support, particularly if he makes substantially more money, earns more than the mother does. So, it’s a complicated situation, one of the most difficult ones that parents have to make and we’re always there to help them if we can.

By: CD Owens

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