In Alabama, child support is determined by what are called "the guidelines". These guidelines are part of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration. The guidelines are based upon an income shares model and are not at all based upon the amount of time the child spends with one parent or the other. Alabama judges are required to follow these guidelines when they determine child support unless there is a need to deviate from these guidelines. When a judge deviates from these guidelines, he or she must enumerate those reasons in the orders they enter. In order to determine how much child support the non-custodial parent must pay to the custodial parent, you have to know how much each parent's monthly gross (before tax) income is, how much either or both parents pay for health insurance, and how much is paid for daycare. The non-custodial parent will pay an amount of child support that is related to his or her percentage of the total income.

That sounds easy doesn't it, just simple math that we all learned by the fifth grade; but often, it is much more complicated. What if one parent is unemployed, self-employed, is a partner in a business, gets per diem payments, has income from investments or a trust, or earns cash under the table? What happens then? Then, there is also the issue of collecting the child support. You may wonder what precautions you can take to make sure that you get the child support awarded to you or what will happen if the support is not paid. These are all questions that an experienced and caring attorney can answer. At the James Family Law Firm, P.C., our attorneys have experience working with both custodial and non-custodial parents to make sure that everyone's actual income is included in the calculations and that you either pay or receive the appropriate amount of child support. We also represent clients seeking to collect past due child support payments.

No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

With offices in Huntsville, Alabama and Decatur, Alabama, we represent clients in Huntsville, Decatur, Athens, Moulton, Falkville, Eva, Cullman, Guntersville, Trinity, Albertville, Scottsboro, New Hope, Harvest, Madison, Ardmore, Somerville, Priceville, and Oneonta.