Child support in Virginia

Child support in Virginia Beach is a very common issue for family law lawyers. Child support is determined by a set of guidelines that has been created by the legislature. The guidelines produce a child support amount that is presumed to be correct for the number of children in the case. The guidelines utilize income from both parties. The income is your gross income, it is not net. In other words, this is before taxes. If you have other children that you support, or if you have other children residing in your home, you will receive a credit against your support.

What happens when you have a child support order but then you reach an agreement to reduce or terminate that support? Well, you need to go back to court. Why? The reason why you need to go back to court is because you are obligated to pay the original amount of child support until such time as the court changes the support in an order. Until the change has been made by the court, you are responsible for 100% of the amount that was previously ordered. This is important because if you do not follow an order, then an arrearage can be created, and you are responsible for the entire amount of the arrearage until such time as the court changes the original order.