You will always be in a better position to argue your case if you can show facts in support of your position. So here are some suggested tracking mechanisms and schedules to help you successfully resolve your case, prove your claim, and/or reduce conflict between you and your ex and/or your child's co-parent:
Child-related Expenditures. Despite how she makes it sound, she's not the only one who spends money on your children! So protect yourself from support hikes by keeping track of your child-related expenses like child support; work-related childcare; health, life, dental, and/or vision insurance; medical and prescription co-pays; uninsured medical, dental, and vision; extracurricular activities; gifts; entertainment; and vacations. And don't forget basic necessities like food, housing, clothing, furniture, transportation, school lunches and supplies, over-the-counter medicines and supplies, hiarcuts, etc.
Court Order Summations. Keep all of the issues in your Temporary Orders, Orders After Hearings, Judgments, etc., straight by creating a simple table of all of your court-ordered stipulations.
Explanation of Earnings. Create spreadsheets to explain complicated pay stubs, non-recurring overtime, bonuses, W-2 earnings, etc.
Holiday, Birthday and Special Day Schedule. Eliminate confusion by spelling out agreements for holidays, birthdays, and special days, and incorporating them into your annual parenting calendar.
Example: Child’s Birthday.
“Follow the approved Parenting Schedule. Parents will coordinate and accommodate one another to the extent practical when planning [Child's] birthday celebrations.
Parent A: Spends [Child's] actual birthday with her (all day or as [Child's] school schedule and Parent A’s work schedule permit).
Parent B: Celebrates [Child's] birthday on Parent B’s next regularly-scheduled parenting day.”
Income and Expense Reconciliations. Create a spreadsheet that compares your monthly bottom line to hers to compare and contrast your income-to-debt ratios, which is considered when setting support amounts.
Medical Reimbursement Form. For collection of the other parent’s share of your child’s uninsured medical care expenses (co-pays, prescriptions, etc.).
Parenting Plans. Develop a comprehensive plan for each parent to approve and use to help resolve your co-parenting issues.
Parenting Calendar. Eliminate confusion by transferring your parenting schedule onto an easy-to-follow, monthly calendar.
Percentage of Parenting Time. Is your parenting time at issue? Create a spreadsheet to calculate your precise annual percentage of parenting time (and hers, too!) to support your claimed time with your children. Dissomaster is based on your percentage of parenting time!
Reconciliations of Disputed Monetary Issues. Develop spreadsheets to explain disputed monetary issues.
Sequence of Events. Keep a detailed chronology of relevant events, which will help you establish a pattern of behavior to substantiate your claims. Remember to also record all of the "right" things that you're doing.
Table of Events and Documents. Develop an at-a-glance chronology of all of the documents and events relevant to your case. This will help you direct your attorney to the right piece of paper in your file, rather than have her do an expensive search.
Unresolved Issues List. Maintain an outline of all of your outstanding issues, which will help you to remember even the small things.
Contact Me. Let me know if you have questions about any of these (or other) tracking mechanisms, or if you'd like me to email you examples or templates. I'm glad to help! :)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
How Can I Help?
Has it occurred to you yet that you “don’t know what you don’t know”?
What I mean is: have you figured out that you don't even know what questions you should be asking because you don't even know that they need to be asked in the first place?
We were there, too...and it hit us like a ton of bricks!
True story: My husband was 2+ years in to his nasty-ass divorce when our landlords said to either buy the house we were renting or move. He asked his attorney if buying a house would affect his case, and she ignored him. Sure enough, after we'd bought the house we were told that homeownership would cause his support payments to go up!!! (I'll explain this in a separate post.)
But the process was always the same: we'd ask my husband's attorney a question, and we were either ignored or treated like idiots because we'd asked such a basic question. (Ah, there's nothing like a condescending response to a legitimate question!) But there's no such thing as a "basic question" when you don't know the rules of the game to begin with!
And so we learned the hard way that attorneys keep you in the dark by holding back information. Think about it: they're paid for their knowledge, so they're stingy with it. They have zero incentive to educate you...you're just expected to go along with whatever they tell you to do. Besides, we were charged up the wazoo every time we asked a question that was actually deemed intelligent enough to answer (although most weren't answered), so we weren't exactly inspired to ask as many questions as we should have.
About Me…
I stayed out of all of this for the entire first year that we were together. But by the beginning of our second year, it was clear that I would have to step in. I became an expert at researching divorce- and child custody-related issues out pure of necessity: if I hadn't, my husband would've gotten totally screwed!
As attorneys go, my husband had a very good one. And with her knowledge and tenacity, combined with my research and documentation*, my husband** walked out of that court room feeling good about the outcome, as he'd been able to accomplish all that he'd set out to from the very beginning: a fair parenting schedule, a reasonably fair support order, and an equitable division of assets and debts.
*I spent 2 pre-trial days in court at my husband's attorney's request as a resource for her and my husband, and to testify at trial concerning how I'd calculated our percentage of parenting time figures.
**He actually WAS my husband at this point: we were able to get married 3-1/2 years in to this f-ed up process (which was 3 years after we'd met) because he'd finally demanded a bifurcation from the devil after his divorce had dragged on for more than 2-1/2 years. (More on bifurcating in a separate post.)
In going through all of this, I’ve learned two very important things:
1) You are just one of dozens of your attorney’s clients. Your attorney doesn't have the time (and you probably don’t have the money) to “baby sit” your case. Other than adding documents to your ever-growing file, it’s likely—and understandable—that it won’t be accessed often between contacts. So you'd better become the expert on your case!
2) The value of better understanding the issues specific to your case is immeasurable...but thoroughly researching these issues on your own takes a good deal of time and know-how, and even if they were able to do it for you, paying your attorney’s office to do this would be much too costly. I've done a lot of the research already, and have posted my findings here for you. For free!
I started this blog to save you from all the same bullshit.
So don't hesitate to email me your comments, questions, concerns, or requests for information, and I'll send you examples and templates...FREE. Just ask.
What's in it for me, you ask? That's simple: the satisfaction of knowing that I'm helping someone who might not otherwise get that help, and keeping him from being screwed by his ex!
Good luck! I hope to hear from you soon.
What I mean is: have you figured out that you don't even know what questions you should be asking because you don't even know that they need to be asked in the first place?
We were there, too...and it hit us like a ton of bricks!
True story: My husband was 2+ years in to his nasty-ass divorce when our landlords said to either buy the house we were renting or move. He asked his attorney if buying a house would affect his case, and she ignored him. Sure enough, after we'd bought the house we were told that homeownership would cause his support payments to go up!!! (I'll explain this in a separate post.)
But the process was always the same: we'd ask my husband's attorney a question, and we were either ignored or treated like idiots because we'd asked such a basic question. (Ah, there's nothing like a condescending response to a legitimate question!) But there's no such thing as a "basic question" when you don't know the rules of the game to begin with!
And so we learned the hard way that attorneys keep you in the dark by holding back information. Think about it: they're paid for their knowledge, so they're stingy with it. They have zero incentive to educate you...you're just expected to go along with whatever they tell you to do. Besides, we were charged up the wazoo every time we asked a question that was actually deemed intelligent enough to answer (although most weren't answered), so we weren't exactly inspired to ask as many questions as we should have.
About Me…
I stayed out of all of this for the entire first year that we were together. But by the beginning of our second year, it was clear that I would have to step in. I became an expert at researching divorce- and child custody-related issues out pure of necessity: if I hadn't, my husband would've gotten totally screwed!
As attorneys go, my husband had a very good one. And with her knowledge and tenacity, combined with my research and documentation*, my husband** walked out of that court room feeling good about the outcome, as he'd been able to accomplish all that he'd set out to from the very beginning: a fair parenting schedule, a reasonably fair support order, and an equitable division of assets and debts.
*I spent 2 pre-trial days in court at my husband's attorney's request as a resource for her and my husband, and to testify at trial concerning how I'd calculated our percentage of parenting time figures.
**He actually WAS my husband at this point: we were able to get married 3-1/2 years in to this f-ed up process (which was 3 years after we'd met) because he'd finally demanded a bifurcation from the devil after his divorce had dragged on for more than 2-1/2 years. (More on bifurcating in a separate post.)
In going through all of this, I’ve learned two very important things:
1) You are just one of dozens of your attorney’s clients. Your attorney doesn't have the time (and you probably don’t have the money) to “baby sit” your case. Other than adding documents to your ever-growing file, it’s likely—and understandable—that it won’t be accessed often between contacts. So you'd better become the expert on your case!
2) The value of better understanding the issues specific to your case is immeasurable...but thoroughly researching these issues on your own takes a good deal of time and know-how, and even if they were able to do it for you, paying your attorney’s office to do this would be much too costly. I've done a lot of the research already, and have posted my findings here for you. For free!
I started this blog to save you from all the same bullshit.
So don't hesitate to email me your comments, questions, concerns, or requests for information, and I'll send you examples and templates...FREE. Just ask.
What's in it for me, you ask? That's simple: the satisfaction of knowing that I'm helping someone who might not otherwise get that help, and keeping him from being screwed by his ex!
Good luck! I hope to hear from you soon.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
What if She Quits (or Threatens to Quit) her Job?
Yeah, unfortunately, we’ve been there, too…
From our 2007 Sequence of Events: [The Devil]’s Angry, Threatening Voice Message. 7:40 p.m.: “[Angel], this is [the devil]. Um, I wanna know why I got a check for 10 dollars [instead of the $20 she unreasonably demanded]. … I w-[ant] I need a call back and I need you to tell me why you’re not paying me what I n-[eed] deserve to be paid. Um … if I hafta quit my job and take you back to court so you can pay me 23 hundred a month then maybe that’s what I hafta do.”
At that time, between child support and earnings, the devil’s monthly income was at least $4,237.50, so we didn’t take her threat seriously. But if she had quit her job, the court would have “imputed” her income to calculate child support, spousal support, and/or attorney fees being as she would have been purposefully unemployed or underemployed.
Here’s how it works:
If the Court believes that a parent has voluntarily reduced his or her wages, no matter how justified, it may compute child support based on that parent’s “imputed income”—or the amount they could be earning.
Minimum wage is $1,300 a month, and the court assumes that everyone can work at a minimum wage job. To impute more than minimum wage, you would need to plan on a vocational examination of your ex to have the admissible evidence needed to impute her higher income.
Imputed income can also be used when an individual is self-employed and her earnings would be greater if she were not. But to be able to impute her income, there needs to be opportunity as well as ability, which means that not only does your ex need to be qualified to do a job, employers also need to be hiring for that job.
So as far as we were concerned, the devil’s threat was a non-threat.
But if she had quit her job, she would’ve been jeopardizing the children’s wellbeing simply because she was pissed off. If that had happened, we would’ve asked the judge for sole physical custody until the devil was able to secure steady, full-time employment sufficient to once again support herself and the children (in combination with my child support). In the meantime, our child support obligation to her would’ve been reduced to zero.
End of problem.
From our 2007 Sequence of Events: [The Devil]’s Angry, Threatening Voice Message. 7:40 p.m.: “[Angel], this is [the devil]. Um, I wanna know why I got a check for 10 dollars [instead of the $20 she unreasonably demanded]. … I w-[ant] I need a call back and I need you to tell me why you’re not paying me what I n-[eed] deserve to be paid. Um … if I hafta quit my job and take you back to court so you can pay me 23 hundred a month then maybe that’s what I hafta do.”
At that time, between child support and earnings, the devil’s monthly income was at least $4,237.50, so we didn’t take her threat seriously. But if she had quit her job, the court would have “imputed” her income to calculate child support, spousal support, and/or attorney fees being as she would have been purposefully unemployed or underemployed.
Here’s how it works:
If the Court believes that a parent has voluntarily reduced his or her wages, no matter how justified, it may compute child support based on that parent’s “imputed income”—or the amount they could be earning.
Minimum wage is $1,300 a month, and the court assumes that everyone can work at a minimum wage job. To impute more than minimum wage, you would need to plan on a vocational examination of your ex to have the admissible evidence needed to impute her higher income.
Imputed income can also be used when an individual is self-employed and her earnings would be greater if she were not. But to be able to impute her income, there needs to be opportunity as well as ability, which means that not only does your ex need to be qualified to do a job, employers also need to be hiring for that job.
So as far as we were concerned, the devil’s threat was a non-threat.
But if she had quit her job, she would’ve been jeopardizing the children’s wellbeing simply because she was pissed off. If that had happened, we would’ve asked the judge for sole physical custody until the devil was able to secure steady, full-time employment sufficient to once again support herself and the children (in combination with my child support). In the meantime, our child support obligation to her would’ve been reduced to zero.
End of problem.
What if She Wants to Leave the Area with the Kids?
In our case, the devil is the children’s mother...so for simplicity’s sake, I will refer to the custodial parent as “the mother” and the non-custodial parent as “the father.”
Whether the mother wants to move the children out of State or to the next town, it’s best to consider the father’s rights early in the planning process as move-away cases can be very difficult, time consuming, and costly. Before the move is planned, the father should be informed and an effort made to reach a mutually-acceptable parenting plan based on the proposed location of both parents.
Fortunately for fathers, the State of California takes in to consideration the impact of a long-distance move on his relationship with his children. The primary factor of “best interest of the child” is considered along with (1) the existing custody and parenting arrangement, (2) the attachment and support of the father and other relatives, (3) the child's ties to the community, school, church or synagogue, and friends, and (4) the child's desires and wishes. If the move would harm the relationship between a child and the father, and yet the mother remains set on the move, it may be sufficient to justify a change in custody to the father.
The primary consideration for modifying an existing order to allow the move-away is the child’s ability to have continuing and frequent contact with both parents without a detrimental effect to the father. If allowed, the modified order could provide additional time with the father during the summer months and other school recesses, while obligating the mother to pay the transportation expenses incurred in facilitating the visit.
In any case, a mother who moves away with the child without providing notice to the father may not only face a change in custody but criminal charges of kidnapping as well.
Whether the mother wants to move the children out of State or to the next town, it’s best to consider the father’s rights early in the planning process as move-away cases can be very difficult, time consuming, and costly. Before the move is planned, the father should be informed and an effort made to reach a mutually-acceptable parenting plan based on the proposed location of both parents.
Fortunately for fathers, the State of California takes in to consideration the impact of a long-distance move on his relationship with his children. The primary factor of “best interest of the child” is considered along with (1) the existing custody and parenting arrangement, (2) the attachment and support of the father and other relatives, (3) the child's ties to the community, school, church or synagogue, and friends, and (4) the child's desires and wishes. If the move would harm the relationship between a child and the father, and yet the mother remains set on the move, it may be sufficient to justify a change in custody to the father.
The primary consideration for modifying an existing order to allow the move-away is the child’s ability to have continuing and frequent contact with both parents without a detrimental effect to the father. If allowed, the modified order could provide additional time with the father during the summer months and other school recesses, while obligating the mother to pay the transportation expenses incurred in facilitating the visit.
In any case, a mother who moves away with the child without providing notice to the father may not only face a change in custody but criminal charges of kidnapping as well.
Does She Want More Child Support?
The court requires that a significant change in circumstances must have taken place before modifying support orders, as follows:
* Change of Employment: A parent changes jobs and his/her income has changed significantly.
* Change in Custody Arrangements: The child now lives with the parent paying support.
* Change in Visitation Schedules: The visitation time with a parent increases or decreases significantly.
* NOT Past Child Support: The court will not modify past child support obligations; this is not permitted by Federal law.
Therefore, the court should refuse to hear your ex’s case for increased child support based solely on whether you get a raise, work overtime, or get a bonus (especially if your bonuses, like my husband's, are already factored in to the Dissomaster calculation).
I say "should" because, as you know, the dad always seems to be getting screwed...but knowing your rights should help protect you from being taken advantage of.
* Change of Employment: A parent changes jobs and his/her income has changed significantly.
* Change in Custody Arrangements: The child now lives with the parent paying support.
* Change in Visitation Schedules: The visitation time with a parent increases or decreases significantly.
* NOT Past Child Support: The court will not modify past child support obligations; this is not permitted by Federal law.
Therefore, the court should refuse to hear your ex’s case for increased child support based solely on whether you get a raise, work overtime, or get a bonus (especially if your bonuses, like my husband's, are already factored in to the Dissomaster calculation).
I say "should" because, as you know, the dad always seems to be getting screwed...but knowing your rights should help protect you from being taken advantage of.
What Does Child Support Cover? (Updated to Include Our Day in Court)
For years (8 to be exact!), the devil expected my husband to reimburse her for one-half of her out-of-pocket expenses for the children’s school supplies, clothes, shoes, haircuts, etc.
Don’t get me wrong: he pays child support. In fact, he pays A LOT of child support! But the fact that child support is supposed to cover all of these things didn’t stop her from harassing him for reimbursement. (I’ve documented as many as three emails, two text messages and five voice messages in the same day demanding reimbursement for a $10 expenditure that she’d planned to incur for one of the kids that was actually covered by child support. We've learned to simply ignore her demands.)
Here’s the deal…
Child support guidelines and calculations are designed to minimize disparities in the standards of living between households by defraying the cost of the child(ren)’s predictable and recurring expenses incurred by or while in the care of the other parent.
So what IS your ex supposed to be doing with all that money you've been ordered to fork over to her each month? It’s supposed to be going toward your child(ren)’s:
• food (groceries, school lunches, etc.)
• housing (mortgage payment [excluding principal payment], property taxes, homeowners insurance and home maintenance costs)
• utilities (gas, electricity, water, sewer, garbage, cable TV, internet and telephones)
• K-12 education (school supplies, backpacks, lunch boxes, field trips, class parties, etc.)
• transportation (car payments, registration, insurance, maintenance and fuel)
• furniture
• clothing (clothes, shoes, outerwear)
• medical (over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies)
• personal hygiene products (toiletries and accessories)
• bedding and linens
• laundry and cleaning supplies
• discretionary/extracurricular activities to include enrichment (e.g. piano, ballet) and sports (e.g. karate, soccer), and all associated expenses (e.g. registration, lessons, instrument, uniform, gear).
Generally speaking, the only things that are NOT covered by child support are work- or school-related child care, health insurance premiums, and any uninsured medical expenses (i.e. co-pays). All other expenses are covered by child support.
The court can order you to pay for other items, as well, but these are typically extraordinary items such as tuition for necessary special education and the like. So you aren’t liable for any extra expenses unless it states so in your support order.
In other words, you aren’t obligated to pay for anything beyond the specified support amount. And paying for any extras is entirely up to you.
UPDATE:
On 10/26/10, the devil's fiance (referred to herein as "no nuts") served my husband with an Order to Show Cause for "extra curricular and other issues as pleaded." That is: she wanted the Judge to order him to reimburse her for one-half the cost of her out of pocket expenses for the children's 2010 and future extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. She also wanted him to "obtain and maintain adequate wardrobes for the children [to be kept at our house]." (Which, by the way, we are NOT obligated to do and which, by the way, we have ALWAYS done.)
WHAT A FREAK!
They went to Court on 11/23/10 (yes, the week of Thanksgiving!).
The Judge started by asking the devil to clarify what it was she was asking for. The devil reiterated that she wanted to be reimbursed for one-half of her 2010 extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. The Judge at least pretended to be confused by her ridiculous request: she made it clear that this is "not an issue of reimbursement"; that she would consider prospectively but not retrospectively. (That is: she would consider future expenses by establishing an order, but not past expenses by ordering enforcement of something that had not previously been ordered].)
The devil then complained that my husband has never reimbursed her for the children's school supplies expenses. The Judge (God bless her!) looked at the devil, dumbfounded, and said, "Isn't that what child support is for? It's not child support PLUS he buys everything for the children!" Priceless!!
In the end, the Judge dismissed everything that came out of that idiot's mouth. She did, however, order my husband to reimburse the devil for one-half of the children's future expenses related to their (non-existent) music lessons. (The devil had lied to the Judge by saying that she'd had to cancel the children's music lessons because she couldn't afford them...only they hadn't taken music lessons in months because they'd only just been dabbling in them and really didn't enjoy them enough to want to continue.)
Don’t get me wrong: he pays child support. In fact, he pays A LOT of child support! But the fact that child support is supposed to cover all of these things didn’t stop her from harassing him for reimbursement. (I’ve documented as many as three emails, two text messages and five voice messages in the same day demanding reimbursement for a $10 expenditure that she’d planned to incur for one of the kids that was actually covered by child support. We've learned to simply ignore her demands.)
Here’s the deal…
Child support guidelines and calculations are designed to minimize disparities in the standards of living between households by defraying the cost of the child(ren)’s predictable and recurring expenses incurred by or while in the care of the other parent.
So what IS your ex supposed to be doing with all that money you've been ordered to fork over to her each month? It’s supposed to be going toward your child(ren)’s:
• food (groceries, school lunches, etc.)
• housing (mortgage payment [excluding principal payment], property taxes, homeowners insurance and home maintenance costs)
• utilities (gas, electricity, water, sewer, garbage, cable TV, internet and telephones)
• K-12 education (school supplies, backpacks, lunch boxes, field trips, class parties, etc.)
• transportation (car payments, registration, insurance, maintenance and fuel)
• furniture
• clothing (clothes, shoes, outerwear)
• medical (over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies)
• personal hygiene products (toiletries and accessories)
• bedding and linens
• laundry and cleaning supplies
• discretionary/extracurricular activities to include enrichment (e.g. piano, ballet) and sports (e.g. karate, soccer), and all associated expenses (e.g. registration, lessons, instrument, uniform, gear).
Generally speaking, the only things that are NOT covered by child support are work- or school-related child care, health insurance premiums, and any uninsured medical expenses (i.e. co-pays). All other expenses are covered by child support.
The court can order you to pay for other items, as well, but these are typically extraordinary items such as tuition for necessary special education and the like. So you aren’t liable for any extra expenses unless it states so in your support order.
In other words, you aren’t obligated to pay for anything beyond the specified support amount. And paying for any extras is entirely up to you.
UPDATE:
On 10/26/10, the devil's fiance (referred to herein as "no nuts") served my husband with an Order to Show Cause for "extra curricular and other issues as pleaded." That is: she wanted the Judge to order him to reimburse her for one-half the cost of her out of pocket expenses for the children's 2010 and future extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. She also wanted him to "obtain and maintain adequate wardrobes for the children [to be kept at our house]." (Which, by the way, we are NOT obligated to do and which, by the way, we have ALWAYS done.)
WHAT A FREAK!
They went to Court on 11/23/10 (yes, the week of Thanksgiving!).
The Judge started by asking the devil to clarify what it was she was asking for. The devil reiterated that she wanted to be reimbursed for one-half of her 2010 extracurricular activities and school-related expenses. The Judge at least pretended to be confused by her ridiculous request: she made it clear that this is "not an issue of reimbursement"; that she would consider prospectively but not retrospectively. (That is: she would consider future expenses by establishing an order, but not past expenses by ordering enforcement of something that had not previously been ordered].)
The devil then complained that my husband has never reimbursed her for the children's school supplies expenses. The Judge (God bless her!) looked at the devil, dumbfounded, and said, "Isn't that what child support is for? It's not child support PLUS he buys everything for the children!" Priceless!!
In the end, the Judge dismissed everything that came out of that idiot's mouth. She did, however, order my husband to reimburse the devil for one-half of the children's future expenses related to their (non-existent) music lessons. (The devil had lied to the Judge by saying that she'd had to cancel the children's music lessons because she couldn't afford them...only they hadn't taken music lessons in months because they'd only just been dabbling in them and really didn't enjoy them enough to want to continue.)
What is Dissomaster?
Dissomaster is a program that calculates TEMPORARY guideline child and spousal support.
Temporary Spousal Support
The support that you're ordered to pay from the time you file for divorce until your divorce is final (a minimum of 6 months in California) is considered “temporary” support. Temporary support is usually set at a higher rate than permanent support.
In re the Marriage of ANDREA L. and MICHAEL P. SCHULZE, No. G015895, COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION THREE, 60 Cal. App. 4th 519; 70 Cal. Rptr. 2d 488; December 29, 1997, Decided: “Temporary support … usually is higher than permanent support because it is intended to maintain the status quo prior to the divorce.”
By the time my husband’s divorce was final, he'd paid at the higher “temporary” rate for more than 2 years (versus the 6-month period that it's intended to cover).
Dissomaster v. Permanent Support
Permanent spousal support is NOT supposed to be based on Dissomaster; it's supposed to be calculated by the Judge...and the Judge is NOT supposed to use Dissomaster as a guide.
In re the Marriage of ANDREA L. and MICHAEL P. SCHULZE, No. G015895, COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION THREE, 60 Cal. App. 4th 519; 70 Cal. Rptr. 2d 488; December 29, 1997, Decided: “The spousal support component of a permanent family support order must be based on the statutory factors enumerated in section 4320 of the Family Code, not pegged to a number generated by a computer program intended for use in calculating temporary support [DissoMaster].”
But be prepared: Even though--BY LAW--spousal support is NOT supposed to be based on Dissomaster, IT IS! It ALWAYS is!
My husband's permanent spousal support was also based on Dissomaster. When specifically questioned about this, his attorney chose to avoid the question rather than answer it. Attorneys don't want to argue this point with the judge. In fact, they're probably counting on the fact that you don't know this law.
You CAN fight this...but you'd better make sure that it will be worth the potentially enormous attorney fees that you're likely to incur, because you’ll probably have to take your case all the way to the Calfornia Court of Appeals. Then again, if you were (un)lucky enough to be married for 10+ years, it may be worth your while to fight this if you're looking at paying a large amount of spousal support for the rest of your ex's life!
Temporary Spousal Support
The support that you're ordered to pay from the time you file for divorce until your divorce is final (a minimum of 6 months in California) is considered “temporary” support. Temporary support is usually set at a higher rate than permanent support.
In re the Marriage of ANDREA L. and MICHAEL P. SCHULZE, No. G015895, COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION THREE, 60 Cal. App. 4th 519; 70 Cal. Rptr. 2d 488; December 29, 1997, Decided: “Temporary support … usually is higher than permanent support because it is intended to maintain the status quo prior to the divorce.”
By the time my husband’s divorce was final, he'd paid at the higher “temporary” rate for more than 2 years (versus the 6-month period that it's intended to cover).
Dissomaster v. Permanent Support
Permanent spousal support is NOT supposed to be based on Dissomaster; it's supposed to be calculated by the Judge...and the Judge is NOT supposed to use Dissomaster as a guide.
In re the Marriage of ANDREA L. and MICHAEL P. SCHULZE, No. G015895, COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION THREE, 60 Cal. App. 4th 519; 70 Cal. Rptr. 2d 488; December 29, 1997, Decided: “The spousal support component of a permanent family support order must be based on the statutory factors enumerated in section 4320 of the Family Code, not pegged to a number generated by a computer program intended for use in calculating temporary support [DissoMaster].”
But be prepared: Even though--BY LAW--spousal support is NOT supposed to be based on Dissomaster, IT IS! It ALWAYS is!
My husband's permanent spousal support was also based on Dissomaster. When specifically questioned about this, his attorney chose to avoid the question rather than answer it. Attorneys don't want to argue this point with the judge. In fact, they're probably counting on the fact that you don't know this law.
You CAN fight this...but you'd better make sure that it will be worth the potentially enormous attorney fees that you're likely to incur, because you’ll probably have to take your case all the way to the Calfornia Court of Appeals. Then again, if you were (un)lucky enough to be married for 10+ years, it may be worth your while to fight this if you're looking at paying a large amount of spousal support for the rest of your ex's life!
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