The duty to pay child support arises in several ways. The most common duty arises from being the biological parent of the supported child. The California Legislature has pegged your financial responsibility to your visitation timeshare with the child, and utilizes a Statewide Uniform Guideline support calculator for determining support.

Additional factors, though not exhuastive, affecting your child support obligation are: court ordered support paid to a former spouse or partner or child, your income as well as that of the other parent, income from investments, health insurance premiums, mandatory retirement contributions, hardship deductions (which may include your mortgage payments). Travel expense for visitation may be considered at the Court's discretion. Even though these factors are relatively clear, there may be considerable litigation of what figures to use and what factors to allow. There is tremendous difficulty applying the law; having a lawyer makes a significant difference that could reduce your expenses in the long-run. A contentious example is where one parent earns exponential income for a few months out of the year while earning minimum wage for the remainder.

Protect your interest; your child support obligation will continue, in most cases, until the child is eighteen years old, or even longer. Every penny counts.