LEGAL CUSTODY, PHYSICAL PLACEMENT, AND CHILD SUPPORT

Many parents dealing with child support, physical placement, and legal custody issues become confused regarding how these legal concepts interact.  For example, is a parent who is not allowed to see his or her child still obligated to pay child support?

To understand how these matters affect each other, one must first understand the terms.  "Legal custody" means the right of a parent to make major decisions regarding his or her child's life.  A parent can have either a joint legal custody, meaning both parents have the right to make these decisions, or sole legal custody, meaning that parent alone has the right to make major decisions.

"Physical placement" means the right of a parent to spend time with the child in his or her own household.

While most parents paying child support do not reside with their child more than 50% of the year, many of these parents do possess some periods of physical placement.  In addition, many also share joint legal custody of their child.

How custody and placement affect a child support obligation is very different.  While a parent's legal custody rights will have no impact on whether he or she will pay child support, or the amount of such support, physical placement rights may impact whether a parent must pay child support, and the amount of that support.  How placement will affect support depends on factors such as both parents' incomes and how much time each parent will spend with the child during the year.

Parents who pay child support and also share periods of physical placement with the other parent are considered "shared time payors".  A shared time payor's support obligation will be calculated based upon a percentage of his or her income and the percentage of time during the year the parent has placement right, and then will be offset by a calculation of a percentage of the other parent's income and their time with the child.  Essentially, if a payor shares placement with the other parent, his or her support obligation will be reduced, and in some rare cases even eliminated, by the offset of what the other parent would pay in child support.

Finally, to answer the question posed in the first paragraph, yes, a parent who does not have placement, or who is being denied placement unfairly by the other parent, still must obey whatever court ordered support obligation is in effect.  Just as legal custody has no bearing on child support, so to does a lack of placement have no effect on whether one will have to pay child support.

For more information on these and other child support issues, contact the Douglas County Child Support Office at (715)395-1420.