Lauriston Law Firm

How to Go About a Child Support Modification

You love your children, and you want to do your best to support them financially, even when you are no longer with the other parent. However, due to many circumstances, such as health or financial difficulty, it often means that it is not feasible to continue with your current arrangement with the courts. It might be helpful to seek modification of the court order. Most of those who seek child support modifications aren’t “deadbeats” who do not want to pay. Rather, they are people who have fallen on hard times for some reason, such as the loss of a job. In those cases, it is a good idea to speak with an attorney about how you can go about getting a modification.

Alternatively, the parent who is receiving child support could actually seek a modification that increases the amount of child support. Again, that parent may have suffered a job loss or an injury that is making it more difficult for them to support their child, or the parent paying support may be making substantially more money now compared to when the court order was entered. They may see a modification to have the parent who pays support pay more each month. The general rule is that the party seeking to modify the current court order has to show a substantial change in circumstances.