North Carolina

The simple answer to this question is “probably yes.” Knowing how to get child support can be crucial to the quality of life your child will be able to have. In the State of North Carolina, only a person with legal custody can request child support and having custody doesn’t mean you will get child support automatically—you’ll have to ask for it. You can get child support even if you share custody with the other parent, if the numbers justify it. The amount of child support is based on state guidelines that take into account both parents’ gross income and contributions for health insurance, child care costs, and any extra expenses.

If you and your spouse have joint physical and legal custody of your children, and one of you earns a great deal more than the other, then it’s likely that spouse will pay child support to their ex.

Joint physical custody means that both parents spend significant time with the children, but the time split doesn’t have to be equal. The parents can define what joint custody means to them. Sole physical custody means that the child lives with one parent for significantly more time than the other North Carolina.

Joint legal custody means that the parents make decisions together about the child’s welfare, including things like medical care and education. Sole physical custody means that only one parent has the authority to make those decisions, and isn’t required to consult with the other parent before taking actions that affect the child.

North Carolina’s child support guidelines are based on the “income shares” model, which was developed under the Child Support Guidelines Project funded by the U.S. Office of Child Support Enforcement and administered by the National Center for State Courts. The income shares model is based on the concept that child support is a shared parental obligation and that a child should receive the same proportion of parental income he or she would have received if the child’s parents lived together. The schedule of basic child support obligations is based primarily on economic research performed pursuant to the Family Support Act of 1988 [P.L. 100-485, § 128], which required the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study of the patterns of expenditures on children. The schedule has been updated based on changes in the consumer price index, changes in federal and state tax rates, and other date.

Contact  today to learn more about types of custody and how they might apply to you in terms of obtaining or having to pay child support.