Although the law changes from state-to-state, and you should talk with a licensed family law lawyer in your area, there is some general information which should be included in every motion for modification of child support.
In any case involving the establishment or modification of an existing child support order, the initiating party should include some variation of the following information in their motion and other pleadings:
- the names, addresses, and dates of birth of all interested parties;
- depending on your jurisdiction, the Social Security number of the parties (this information should be kept confidential and may be filed with the court on a separate pleading marked “private”);
- information stating whether the person who has to pay child support has any other child support obligations for different children;
- the names and addresses of all the parties’ employers;
- the gross income of the parties (the term “gross income” varies and you need to look at the law in your state);
- amounts and sources of any other income of all of the parties (this could include Social Security payments, inheritance, disability, etc);
- the health insurance coverage that the parties currently have for the children at issue;
- the types and amounts of any public assistance received by the parties;
- any other information relevant to the computation of a child support amount.
As you can see, there is a variety of information which should be included in a motion to modify child support. Basically, the court wants a completely accurate picture of the parties’ income so that it can make a just award of child support.
A good Apple Valley MN family law lawyer will also explain to you that bringing a motion to modify child support may not be available if a specific amount of time has not passed since the initial child support determination by the judge. In other words, if the initial child support order was made by the judge several months ago, you probably won’t be able to modify the support level absent a showing of exception circumstances such as a lost job, etc.
When preparing the documentation for the motion, you and/or your attorney need to include all sources of earnings and income. The documents that most readily prove this information include: recent tax returns, paychecks for regular and overtime wages, verification of any bonus income, verification of income from independent contracts, dividend and stock statements, interest statements, balance sheets for rental income, etc. As you can imagine, there are a variety of way to show actual, gross income.
Once you have gathered all of this information, you or your lawyer will begin preparing the legal documents or “pleadings” which will be submitted to the court. There are many forms online in many states which allow people who cannot afford a lawyer to proceed on their own. Although I don’t advise proceeding without a lawyer, I wanted to make sure that people were aware that they can file their own “pro so” motions to modify child support.
Again, if you are confused about what is necessary, I recommend you at least speak with a family law lawyer in your state.
