Maryland Divorce Attorney Blog

As anticipated in a posting last year, the 2010 legislative session has resulted in legislation to modify the Child Support Guidelines. For Maryland Family Law Attorneys and most of their clients in high income counties such as, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County and Howard County this will translate into increased child support awards. House Bill 500 ,which is the first upward adjustment in the guidelines since they were adopted over 20 years ago will become effective on October 1, 2010. Until then the existing guidelines will remain in effect.

The existing guidelines go up to a combined adjusted annual income of $10,000 per month. Currently at that level, the "basic child support amount is $1040, $1616 and $2026 for parents with 1, 2 and 3 children respectively. For example, if a mother had custody and had no income these would be the basic child support obligation of a father earning $120, 00 per year. Under the new law, basic child support would increase to $1271, $1811 and $2101 respectively.

Beginning October 1, 2010, the new guidelines will be used to establish pendent lite and permanent support and to modify existing child support orders. However, existing child support orders can be modified only if there has been a material change of circumstances. The bill expressly provides that the adoption of the new guidelines is not a material change of circumstances for purposes of modification of child support.

The new guidelines go up to a combined adjusted actual income of $15,000. For couples with combined income above that level the law continues to gives substantially more discretion to the court in setting the support level.

Maryland Child Custody and Divorce Lawyers know that the duty to pay child support is a bedrock principle of Family Law. In a previous posting, I have discussed efforts underway in the 2010 legislative session to update the current statute. The goal has been to make the calculation of child support as automatic as possible by establishing guidelines that are simple and accessible. Attempts to avoid paying child support are highly disfavored by the courts. On appeal in Duckworth vs. Kamp, Mr. Duckworth discovered how strong that policy is.

Mr. Duckworth played a trump card to defend against a claim for arrearages brought by his former wife. He asserted a claim that had long been a matter of suspicion. He wasn't the biological father of his 14 year old daughter! He actually convinced the trial court to order a paternity test. When the test supported his defense, the court dismissed the claim for unpaid child support and granted his motion to terminate child support.

On appeal by mother, the Maryland Court of Appeals refused to accept Mr. Duckworth's belated efforts to shuck off fatherhood because of financial convenience. The court held that the Circuit Court had erred because it failed to consider the best interest of the child. It went further in enumerating a host of legal principle that precluded his long delayed renunciation of fatherhood. However, setting aside issues that may be unique to Mr. Duckworth, this opinion confirms the principle that before entering any order for paternity testing the court must first determine that it is in the best interest of the child.

You and your spouse have discussed divorce and want to make it as amicable as possible. There are better things to do with your money than pay it to lawyers. When you hire a lawyer, you expect value for what you pay. Where do you begin? An initial meeting with a Maryland Divorce Attorney will allow you to develop a successful negotiating strategy.

As the client, you are entitled to control how negotiations are approached. However, your lawyer needs to educate you on how Maryland Divorce law, will influence each of the issues that applies to you, your spouse and your family. The following is an overview of issues to consider:

Children: Who will have legal custody? Who will have physical custody? What is the schedule for each parent to spend time with the children?

Child Support: Who will provide health care for the children? What extraordinary expenses do the children have, such as orthodontic bills, therapy, medical care and education? The latter may include private school K-12 and/or college expenses. Child support will be determined based on Maryland child support guidelines. The schedule in the Maryland Family Law Article only covers combined incomes of $120,000.00. Many families in high income regions such as Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, and Carroll County exceed this amount. Your attorney can help you anticipate how the Court is likely to use the guidelines to extrapolate an appropriate amount for higher income families. My prior posting discusses the fact that the Maryland General Assembly will be considering legislation to modify the state's child support guidelines.

Family Home: What will become of the family home? I have previously posted comments about how the upside down real estate market has made decisions more difficult for divorcing couples.

Alimony: Is this a case for temporary or indefinite alimony? In the absence of alimony, what will the income of each party be and how will their standard of living compare?

Property Disposition: What property including retirement assets is owned by the parties? How is the property titled? Why was it titled in that manner? You might want to review my prior posting on Marital Property. Identify the property that is Marital Property. What is the value of the Marital Property? How is the Marital Property titled?

Closely Held Businesses: This is a special subset of Property Disposition issues. Often, valuation is the biggest challenge. You may refer to my previous post on this issue.

Pensions: Is either of the parties entitled to a pension? How will these pension benefits be allocated? This is another subset of Property Disposition issues; military, federal, state and local government pensions are included.

Divorce cases in high income counties such as Howard, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Carroll and Baltimore frequently involve setting support based on parental incomes that fluctuates substantially. This is occurring more frequently in the current roller coaster economy. A recent opinion provides guidance on how the courts should deal with the ups and downs of parental income in calculating child support.

The decision in Lorincz vs. Lorincz involved a mother who left a graduate program at Hopkins School of Medicine to attend law school. One of the issues in that opinion arose because she earned $36,424 during the summer as an associate in a New York Law Firm but had no income during the 9 months of law school. The trial court had calculated child support by chopping up the year into two parts, one during mother's high income summer months and second during her nine months in school. On appeal, that approach was rejected. Instead, the Court of Special Appeals ruled that child support payments should have been computed based on mother's annualized income. According to the opinion, when calculation child support, "per annum analysis remains a safe harbor."

While the facts of Lorincz are unusual, the opinion addresses an issue that occurs frequently in diverse cases involving once a year bonuses, profit sharing, capital gains, and income from commissions or profits from closely held businesses. It may also have some applicability to executives who experience temporary unemployment. It is more apt to be applied in cases involving higher income parents who are not living "hand to mouth". While a "per annum analysis" does not appear to be the only possible approach, the opinion clearly demonstrates that in many cases, periods of high and low income cannot be "hermetically sealed off" from each other in calculating child support.

Efforts to update Maryland's Child Support Guidelines will be redoubled in the 2010 legislative session. As a Maryland Child Support Attorney and former member of the Maryland House of Delegates who served on the Judiciary Committee when they were enacted, I can attest to the fact that the original guidelines bill was passed with no significant opposition. However, determined efforts to modernize the guidelines in the 2009 legislative session did not fair as well. Some opponents seem to be concerned about raising child support obligations in an economic downturn. Proponents of updating the guidelines contend that current law does not reflect more recent estimates of child rearing costs.The House Judiciary Committee is hoping to hear this Fall from an expert who has studied this issue.In part there may be an impact from over 20 years of inflation. For any given income level a greater share of the expenses are non discretionary. This might justify a greater share of income being apportioned to the children of the household.

There can be no dispute about another limitation of the current guidelines. They are based on a schedule in the statute that applies only to combined parental income up to $10,000 per month. In cases involving higher combined incomes, the court typically extrapolates child care expenses and apportions them based on the "Income Shared" methodology. While this may lead to a satisfactory result, it means that child support awards are less predictable in higher income counties such as Howard, Baltimore, Montgomery and Anne Arundel.

My experience in the legislature tells me that pressure will continue to build on members of the House Judiciary and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committees during the 2010 legislative session, scheduled from January to April. Any true reform bill would pass overwhelmingly on the floor of both the House and Senate. Therefore legislative action to update Maryland's child support guidelines can be expected as they pass their 20th anniversary. If a new law is enacted, it is likely that the legislature will set an effective date and establish other provisions designed to protect the courts' dockets from a flood of requests to modify existing orders.