Ouk v. Ouk: A review of the child support payments case Ouk v. Ouk that went through the Utah Court of Appeals on March 12, 2015.
By Laura Morgan, Family Law Consultant
Trial court was not required to deduct from former husband’s gross income, for purposes of calculating child support payments, the expenses former husband claimed in financial declaration submitted to court, including expenses for rent or mortgage payments, residence maintenance, food and household supplies, where declaration did not contain information about husband’s business expenses, and even assuming listed expenses were for legitimate business expenses, former husband did not demonstrate that they were necessary to allow his business to operate at a reasonable level.
Laura W. Morgan is the owner and operator at Family Law Consulting in Charlottesville, Virginia.Laura is available for consultation, brief writing and research on family law issues throughout the country. She can be reached through her website. www.famlawconsult.com
Child support can be a sensitive topic for many clients. Some clients believe they should not have to pay any money to their soon to-be former spouse, or will ask their lawyers to find ways to pay a smaller amount in monthly support. Software that automatically calculates child support based on specific income inputs and the applicable state’s law can be a valuable tool for family law attorneys. However, attorneys should advise clients that the software calculations are not written in stone because of the modifiability of child support – and because judges have the option of deviating from the state guidelines.
This unemployment crisis means it is time to start thinking about child and spousal support orders. Courts are closed across the nation, making it more difficult to seek modifications of orders already in place. In California, the Court does not have jurisdiction to modify support orders until a party has sought to modify them by filing a formal motion (Fam. C. 3653 – the later of the motion to modify support or the date of unemployment). But many clerks’ offices are closed and are not processing new motions.
Diana Shepherd has over 30 years of experience as a marketing, branding, SEO, copywriting, editing, and publishing expert. As Content Director for Family Lawyer Magazine, Divorce Magazine, and Divorce Marketing Group, she oversees all corporate content development and frequently creates SEO-friendly videos, podcasts, and copy for family law and financial firms.
The Co-Founder of Divorce Magazine and Divorce Marketing Group, Diana is an award-winning editor, published author, and a nationally recognized expert on divorce, remarriage, finance, and stepfamily issues. She has written hundreds of articles geared towards both family law professionals and divorcing people, and she has both performed and taught on-page SEO for 20+ years.
Diana spent eight years as the Marketing Director for the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts® (IDFA®), and she has been a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® since 2006. While at IDFA, she wrote, designed, and published The IDFA Marketing Guide, and she also created seminars for CDFA professionals to present to family lawyers (approved for CLE), as well as to separated and divorcing individuals.
She has represented both DMG and IDFA at industry conferences and events across North America, and she has given marketing as well as divorce financial seminars at many of those conferences.
