Helping You Make The Well-Being Of Your Children Your First Priority
The court encourages parents to make the well-being of their children their first priority when divorcing. Children generally fare better when both parents cooperate and are involved in the decisions for their children’s visitation, medical care, education or religion. However, it is not always possible to remain friendly when parental responsibility is yet to be determined.
An experienced family law attorney can help create parenting plans, prepare you for informal or formal mediation and go to trial to advocate for the best interest of your children when necessary. At my firm, the Law Office of Cornelius Bostick, I have 20 years of experience providing personalized legal representation for families in Memphis.
Duties And Responsibilities Between Parents Are Regulated By Tennessee Statutes
Divorcing parents are required to attend a parenting class before the court will grant their divorce. If you and your spouse cannot agree on who will be the primary residential parent of your child, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem (GAL) to write a report based on interviews with your children, their teachers, babysitters, neighbors, grandparents and other people who spend time with your children.
The court sometimes orders an independent child custody evaluation by a court-appointed psychologist if a question of mental health stability of one or both parents or the child arises.
Child Support Is A Court-Ordered Formula, But Exceptions Can Be Made
Child support is a court-ordered formula determined by which parent will be the primary residential parent, the income of each parent, parenting time and both parents’ incomes. A parent’s income is the total of all wages earned, income from self-employed business earnings, trust income, annuities, pensions, Social Security income and other earnings.
Contributions to health insurance, medical costs and child care costs qualify as deductions. Special education or special medical needs of your children can be factors supporting an increase in child support. Parenting time is another factor affecting the total child support figure. When parents share equal parenting time, that is, each parent has the child in their residence for 182.5 days, child support is generally not owed to the other parent.
Child support laws have recently changed for collecting back-due child support. If your child support order was filed prior to July 1, 2017, you could request collection of the support dating back to your child’s birth. Cases filed after that date have a five-year look-back window to collect back-due child support.
Call An Attorney Who Cares About The Best Interest Of Your Child
Email or call my firm, the Law Office of Cornelius Bostick, in Memphis at 901-441-9959 for a free consultation to discuss your child custody and support matters. You can be confident you are speaking with a family lawyer who cares about the best interest of your children.