Change of Child Support

[CLCJJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am currently paying child support for my two wonderful kids. One is about to turn 18 and graduate high school. My ex-wife is still a resident of Florida but is currently stationed with the military in California. I am retired military currently living overseas in Germany. I am getting conflicting information, one says that i have to do a change of venue, another says I can do a change of jurisdiction. I hired a lawyer in California, but he didn't know what was going on or what needed to happen and I was doing most of the work while he was charging me an arm and a leg. Does anyone have any advice/recommendations. Thank you for your time.

CLCJJ

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am currently paying child support for my two wonderful kids. One is about to turn 18 and graduate high school. My ex-wife is still a resident of Florida but is currently stationed with the military in California. I am retired military currently living overseas in Germany. I am getting conflicting information, one says that i have to do a change of venue, another says I can do a change of jurisdiction. I hired a lawyer in California, but he didn't know what was going on or what needed to happen and I was doing most of the work while he was charging me an arm and a leg. Does anyone have any advice/recommendations. Thank you for your time.

CLCJJ

If your income has increased since child support was last ordered/increased you might want to think very carefully before filing for a modification. I have seen people file for a modification when one child ages out, only to end up with an increase instead.

The following is for example purposes only, just to give you a general idea of what I am talking about. You will want to either talk to an attorney or find an online calculator for the state that made your child support orders for more precise information.

If someone was earning 30k when their child support order was made, they might have been paying 7500.00 a year in child support (25%). If that was never modified and their income had increased over the years to 50k, then child support for one child (17%) might end up at 8500.00 per year.

Again, this is a simplistic example just to let you understand that child support would be recalculated and might go up rather than down.

 

[single317dad]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am currently paying child support for my two wonderful kids. One is about to turn 18 and graduate high school. My ex-wife is still a resident of Florida but is currently stationed with the military in California. I am retired military currently living overseas in Germany. I am getting conflicting information, one says that i have to do a change of venue, another says I can do a change of jurisdiction. I hired a lawyer in California, but he didn't know what was going on or what needed to happen and I was doing most of the work while he was charging me an arm and a leg. Does anyone have any advice/recommendations. Thank you for your time.

CLCJJ

What you want is a transfer of jurisdiction, not a change of venue. Florida may refuse to hear the case because many states have case law refusing to hear CS mod cases when both parties have moved away from the state. I haven't checked FL but I'd bet you an ice cold Coca-Cola they have it as well. Heed LdiJ's advice; between the change of state and time since the last order, you could be looking at an increase. Do the math first.

https://www.cse.ca.gov/ChildSupport/cse/guidelineCalculator#

 

[TheGeekess]

What you want is a transfer of jurisdiction, not a change of venue. Florida may refuse to hear the case because many states have case law refusing to hear CS mod cases when both parties have moved away from the state. I haven't checked FL but I'd bet you an ice cold Coca-Cola they have it as well. Heed LdiJ's advice; between the change of state and time since the last order, you could be looking at an increase. Do the math first.

https://www.cse.ca.gov/ChildSupport/cse/guidelineCalculator#

Mom's state of residence is STILL Florida.

My ex-wife is still a resident of Florida but is currently stationed with the military in California.

File in Florida and let the chips fall where they may, if the order was issued in Florida.