QUESTION: My soon to be ex wife earned approximately $11.00 more than me prior to the birth of our daughter. She has since shortened her working hours (we work at the same company) yet still makes .50 cents more than I do because of her new schedule. She is adamant about being a stay at home mom (which is her decision and I'm not faulting her.) My question is this, how will the courts factor in the difference when coming up with a amount for child support, (I haven't yet sought legal counself because I haven't been served anything and it has been a month since we physically separated + we're on semi-speaking terms email/texting etc) also, can they force her to go back to work full time?
MY RESPONSE:
Child support is based on your monthly income, your wife's monthly income, and your percentage of custodial timeshare. It is not merely based on how much you and your wife earn per hour.
If you want the Court to impute income to your wife, you would need to be able to prove that she has both the ability and the opportunity to earn that income.
A reported case with facts similar to yours was in re Marriage of LaBass and Munsie, where the Court imputed full time income to a wife who chose to work only part time, after the husband proved that there were full time jobs available to the wife for which the wife was qualified, along with the amount of pay that was available in those full time jobs. In that case, the Court allowed the husband's use of classified ads to show that "offers to bargain existed" to overcome the wife's hearsay objections.
In my experience, some, but not all Courts, will accept classified ads as a basis to impute income to a party.
You could file a Motion to have a Vocational Tranining Consultant perform a vocational examination of your wife; in such an examination, the expert interviews your wife, learns of her education, training and experience, contacts references of hers, and performs a labor market survey, to determine what jobs are available, at what rate of pay, for which your wife would be qualified.
The testimony of a Vocational Traning Consultant at a hearing or trial is an effective way to persuade the Court to impute income to a party.
Whereas a Court cannot force your wife to go back to work full time, if you are able to prove her ability and opportunity to earn full time (as addressed hereinabove), the Court can treat your wife for support purposes as though she is earning the income that the Court imputes to her.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
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