Uncontested Child Support
A court may make child support orders in any proceeding involving a dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or child custody. In order for a court to determine child support amounts under the mandatory statewide guidelines, it must first determine the approximate percentage of time each parent has with the children. Therefore, child support and child custody are often times sought in the same proceedings, specifically when a divorce is first being initiated and child custody and child support is not agreed upon.
There is no legal obligation to pay child support until there is a child support court order. It is standard for a court to use support calculation software to determine the amount of an award of child support. While this sounds simple, in reality, it is typically not as straight forward as one might hope. There are various financial factors which must be input in the child support calculation software, and they are often topics of debate in court proceedings. Therefore, it is important to have the assistance of an attorney to help you understand what your child support obligation or award might look like in the various scenarios that may play out, especially if there has been a history of varied employment or periods of unemployment of either party.
Additionally, a family law court has broad authority to modify or terminate child support "at any time as the court determines to be necessary." Husbands or wives are sometimes surprised to learn what this means: even their so-called "final judgment" may be modified with regard to child support. Until the child support obligation ends, child support orders are never final.
Spousal Support
An agreement made between the parties is typically the best case scenario. The factors set forth in the Family Code are:
Each party's earning capacity in relation to the marital standard of living;
Contributions to a spouse's attainment of education or training;
The ability of a supporting spouse to pay;
The needs of each party;
The obligations and assets of each party;
The duration of the marriage;
The ability of the supported party to be employed without impairing the interest of the parties' children;
The parties' ages and health;
Any documented history of domestic violence between the parties;
The immediate and specific tax consequences to each party;
The balance of hardships to each party;
The goal of self-support by the supported party;
Consideration of any criminal conviction of an abusive spouse in reducing or eliminating spousal support; and
Any other factors the court deems just and equitable.
Therefore, spousal support can be more of a gray area. While there is software sometimes used to help determine what a baseline spousal support might look like (as with child support), there is room for more deviation regarding spousal support, sometimes significantly, due to the factors laid forth above.