Child Support

Child support refers to money paid from one parent to the other for the financial support of their joint children.  All children require financial support.  Linda recognizes that all parents desire to provide for their children the best they can.  Because child support laws can be somewhat inflexible, it is important to have a knowledgeable lawyer assist you with establishing fair arrangements that are consistent with legal requirements and that also meet the needs of the two households involved.  With Linda's help, creative parents can find ways to work together to support their children in a manner that is fair and reasonable to both parents.

Child support consists of three parts in Minnesota: base child support, child care reimbursement and medical support.  Base support is a set dollar amount for general support of the children.  Child care reimbursement is in addition to base child support, but is required only in cases where the children are in daycare.  Medical support includes payment for health insurance or medical assistance and division of out of pocket health care expenses.

Minnesota law uses a formula to calculate child support that counts both parents' gross income and several other factors to determine all three parts of child support.  Information including the parents' gross income, number of children, cost of healthcare insurance, cost of child care, and amount of parenting time goes into a legal formula to determine support obligations.  Minnesota has adopted a child support guidelines calculator to determine child support amounts.  Information on the Minnesota child support law and the guideline calculator can be found at http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/. 

If both parents agree, they can establish child support provisions that vary from the amounts that would be required by the guidelines calculator, however, parents need to be sure that their alternative approach will adequately provide for their children in order for their agreement to be approved by the court.