Q. My ex was just ordered to pay child support of $200 per week for our 6-year-old daughter. I don’t understand how that happened. He earns almost $500,000 per year. When we were together, he was always complaining that he had to pay for his oldest son to go to college. He said it was better to pay for all of college than give the mother money because then he knew it was going to his son. I know he is paying support to his second wife of over $1,000 per week for their two teenage kids and she didn’t work so he is still supporting her too. I don’t know how much he pays in alimony, but I think it’s another $1,000 per week.
I didn’t hire a lawyer because it’s just math – maybe I should have. What can I do to fix it and get the kind of money that my daughter deserves?
A. There are a few nuances here which may not be obvious. First, you are third in line in the support food chain. His first obligation is to his oldest son. If he is paying 100% of college in lieu of child support for that child, it is something the judge would have to consider when entering an order for your daughter. I do not know how much that is but I’ll assume the cost of UMass of around $37,000.
Second in line is his second family meaning the two teenagers you mentioned and his second ex-wife. In setting the order for those children, the judge would have to have considered his first child. He cannot be ordered to pay child support for two different families without some consideration of the first order and how it impacts his income. If he is paying his second family $104,000 per year, his $500,000 income is now reduced to $359,000 which is still more than a lot of people earn.
I do not know what you earn, but the judge has to consider the first two families in setting an order for your daughter. It may be you earn more than his first two exes. It may be you have a shared parenting plan which also reduces the amount of support that he is ordered to pay. The bottom line is, on these facts, it is unlikely the judge got the math wrong.
As for what you can do about it – you can always modify child support if incomes or finances change. So, once his son graduates from college, you can use that as a basis to modify support and recalculate the amount of child support due for your daughter.
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