Joint custody is the shared legal or physical custody of children after parents divorce or separate. Parents who have joint custody share the responsibilities of making parenting decisions and providing care. It’s essential for parents to understand how their custody arrangement will influence the amount of child support they must pay or are entitled to receive.
Legal custody rulings don’t automatically factor into child support, but a physical custody agreement will also determine the amount of child support payments. If you’re a New Jersey resident, here are some family law statutes you should be aware of when it comes to custody and child support.
The child support standard act statute
The CSSA or Child Support Standards Act of 2008 is a set of statutes that serve as guidelines for determining child support obligations for each parent. The CSSA does not detail how much each parent owes and does not specifically dictate how joint custody child support issues should be handled in the family law court.
Individual courts will decide how much each parent owes child support based on the laws of the state. The rules will vary depending on local mandates, each parent’s income, and the amount of time the child(ren) spends with each of the parents. The specific financial, educational, medical, and emotional needs of the children will be taken into account as well.
Child support for non-custodial parents
According to the CSSA, the family law courts will order a parent who does not tend to the daily responsibilities for the child(ren) to pay more child support.
This ruling is based on several factors such as the number of other children the parent has, the parent’s income, and how often the children spend the night in the parent’s home. Each state has a specific formula for determining obligations for child support; however, the amount of time the child(ren) spends with each parent is always taken into serious consideration.
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