Does Child Support Change When Child Custody Changes?

One of the more commonplace activities for a Michigan family law office is helping divorced parents who have had significant life changes get their child custody orders modified. For example, a divorced father who was denied custody due to alcoholism may ask the court to reconsider after staying sober for 2 years — that’s a genuine, legitimate request. But if the court grants partial custody to that father, what happens to the child support agreement?

Two Separate Entities
The heart of the issue here is that the child support order and the custody/visitation order are two separate entities under the law. Each one is created with the other in mind, but once created, the two take on essentially separate existences. And while a change in circumstances might affect both, it might also only affect one or the other.

Factors Make the Difference
There are many factors that the court is obligated to take into account when creating a child support order — and there are also many factors involved in creating a child custody decision…but they’re not the same factors.

Custody/Visitation agreements are affected by these factors:

• The love, affection, and emotional ties existing between the parties involved and the child,

• The capacity and disposition of the parties involved to give the child love, affection, and guidance and to continue the education and raising of the child in his or her religion or creed, if any,
• The capacity and disposition of the parties involved to provide the child with food, clothing, and medical care or other remedial care recognized under the laws of this state in place of medical care, and other material needs,
• The length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment, and the desirability of maintaining continuity,
• The permanence, as a family unit, of the existing or proposed custodial home or homes,

• The moral fitness of the parties involved,
• The mental and physical health of the parties involved,
• The home, school, and community record of the child,
• The reasonable preference of the child, if the court considers the child to be of sufficient age to express a preference,
• The willingness and ability of each of the parties to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent or the child and the parents (assuming a relationship with each parent is good for the child),
• Domestic violence, regardless of whether the violence was directed against or witnessed by the child, and
• Any other factor considered by the court to be relevant to a particular child custody dispute.

And Child Support agreements are affected by these:

• The parents’ incomes,
• Custody and parenting time arrangements,
• The number of children supported,
• Medical costs,
• Child care costs,
• Other factors, and
• The fairness of the final agreement.

A Two-Step Process

You’ll note that ‘custody and parenting time arrangements’ are included in child support agreements, so any change to the custody/visitation agreement should affect the child support setup as well. But there are two things that have to happen along the way. First, the requested modification of the custody/visitation agreement has to be approved by the court and implemented (because until it has been, there’s no actual change to take effect). Second, one or both spouses must file a motion to amend the child support agreement in light of the new custody/visitation schedule.

So while a change to custody/parenting time schedules is, legally, something that should directly affect child support, it’s not automatic. If you’re going to request a modification to one, you should expect to go through the same process a second time in order to get the other to keep up. You could probably benefit from the help of a skilled family attorney — call Gucciardo Family Law today and we’ll ensure the process goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible.