Georgia Child Support Plan Hearing

Georgia parents got a chance to speak out yesterday about the proposed plan to change child support in Georgia, set to take effect July 1. Everybody knows child support awards will be going down; the only question is how much. Here’s a story about it from the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The new plan will bring Georgia’s plan into closer alignment with those used in surrounding states that consider the income of both parents rather than basing the award on the income of only the non-custodial parent. Yesterday’s hearing was the first of four scheduled around the state.

5 thoughts on “Georgia Child Support Plan Hearing”

  1. Common sense is starting to prevail. The ultimate answer is to get the state removed from family affairs entirely.

  2. I think there is a fundamental problem with these guidelines– they are standardized, one-size fits all solutions. I’m a law student & I worked this past summer as a judicial intern in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Maryland. I was impressed with how Judges, when given the power, are capable of doing the right thing. The attraction for me to family law, in Maryland, is that it is a court of equity: where concerns of fairness determine who gets what. Unfortunately, even MD has child support guidelines. But they deny that different children & families, regardless of their income, have different needs. Standardized solutions are cop outs that deny judges the opportunity to Judge. If anything, the guidelines should opperate as basement minimum standards, but judges should be allowed to increase them as much as the demandds & needs of fairness– the needs of the children– require. One thing that would help create an incentive to litigate such important matters would be a federal tax deduction for feeds that clients spend seeking child support, much like there are deductions allowed for alimony.

    What is wrong with a system that cheats children & disempowers judges to give them more?

    Amar S. Weisman
    University of Baltimore
    2-L

    Amar Weisman

  3. Lee, I have to agree that the income shares model makes more sense. However, I do worry that it fails to account for one of the biggest expenses of raising children, namely loss of income. Now, some families do split up the duty of taking care of sick children, staying home over the winter holiday, etc., etc. But while that is laudible, it’s hardly the norm. We have information on the hearing on our blog entry for that day, including links to the new support tables.

    In all this debate about reducing child support, much has been made of who pays for more of the out of pocket costs, but we’re all forgetting those fabulous studies of the economic impact of divorce on men vs. women, and the ultimate impact that has on children. Some of it is career choice, but much of that is driven by the desire to stay home in the tender years and then to continue to work at jobs that permit quality parenting.

  4. I would like to invite all of you to visit my site, http://www.5050parents.com. I will be posting all of the finances involved in my custody case. I think that will give you an excellent idea of what the current Georgia child support laws are doing to parents.

    For the record… I am a parent that will make sure my daughter has everything she ever needs. I would give up anything I have in order to make sure her needs are met. Also, for the record, I don’t need a court’s intervention to ensure that I do what I just said. I would do it on my own, because I love my daughter.

    Perhaps the courts should focus only on cases in which a parent isn’t providing for his/her child.

  5. “Lee, I have to agree that the income shares model makes more sense. However, I do worry that it fails to account for one of the biggest expenses of raising children, namely loss of income.” Well, that’s true but in the state of gerogia everyone must do the joshua’s law course.

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