Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

I am a Father in VA paying a court ordered child support payment as well as other things as well, such as School Function fees, Sports Fees/Equipment, School supplies, shoes, and other things. My son's mother and I were never married. Recently my son's mother has come to me wanting to re-calculate the Child Support because she feels she should have only been liable for minimum wage instead of what the Judge placed her income at. She voluntarily left a job where she was making good money and is now voluntarily unemployed and has been for over 2 years. She has also recently remarried and bought a house and a new car. I recently read a guideline in the VA Child Support Factors that states the if the payee is voluntarily impoverishing herself, which I feel she is since she is and has been unemployed for this amount of time and is showing no interest in finding a job, that I the payer can request that the new spouce's income be factored into the equation,, Does this apply to someone like myself? As stated above, if she is not employed and voluntarily keeping herself below the poverty level, how and/or why is she able to spend money in extravigant ways?


Asked on 4/19/10, 4:41 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

I have reviewed the Virginia Child Support Guidelines found at Va. Code Sec. 20-108.2 as well as Sec. 20-108.1B3 (having to do with imputed income) and find nothing to support your assertion regarding a new spouse's income being included in the income shares formula---for any reason whatsoever.

Furthermore, I find it legally counterintuitive that such a spouse could ever in any way be forced to share in the support of dependent children for whom the spouse is in no way related and would therefore have no responsibility to support.

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Answered on 4/25/10, 8:23 am


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