Child Support Lawyer
Our family law team assists with all child support matters from calculation of child support and enforcement of court orders to filing contempt actions for failure to pay child support in Cumming and Dawsonville, Georgia.
Filing a Contempt Order for Failure to Pay Child Support
If your ex fails to pay the court ordered amount of child support, we can file a contempt order with the court for failure to pay child support. The contempt action is considered a new case and the judge who presided over the previous case will also preside over this case so long as they are still serving.
The other party will be put on a payment plan until the entire child support debt is paid or they will face incarceration for failure to pay the court ordered amount.
Cases in Cumming are handled through the Forsyth County courts and cases in Dawsonville are handled in the Dawon County courts.
Calculating Child Support
The court considers several factors when settling on a monthly amount for child support. These factors include the incomes of both parents including salary, commissions, pensions, bonuses, severance, overtime, social security payments, disability payments, interest and dividend income, trust and annuity income, workers’ compensation, and other forms of income. In Georgia, there is a formula which takes the aforementioned factors and divides the cost of raising a child (or children) and determines a fair amount that the non-custodial parent is to pay the custodial parent. In special cases the amount of child support ordered by the court may deviate from the guidelines if sufficient evidence is presented which allows for an adjustment to be made.
Such evidence may include:
- Mortgage payments
- Life insurance
- High income (combined monthly income over 30K)
- Low income
- Child tax credits
- Division of parenting time
However, if the other party is attempting to hide income to pay less child support, we will employ financial experts including forensic accountants to ensure the entire, accurate amount is recorded.