Ventura, CA Child Support Attorney for Mothers

If you are a mother, your kids likely mean the world to you. If you are going through a divorce or separation, or if you live apart from the father of your children, you may have concerns about how your children will get the support they need. Especially if you need to work while raising your children, providing enough money for adequate support can be difficult by yourself.

Talk to an attorney about seeking child support in California. Nearly every case where parents live in separate households is eligible for a child support order under California law, and our Ventura child support attorneys work to help mothers get the support they need for their children. To schedule a free consultation with the attorneys at the Law Offices of Bamieh and De Smeth, contact us online or call us today at (805) 643-5555.

How to Get Child Support in California

Any time that parents live apart, California law expects there to be a child support order in place. These orders allow automatic enforcement and wage garnishment to help pay for your children’s needs. If you are seeking a divorce or no longer live in the same house as the children’s other parent, it is important to consider talking to a child support attorney to establish child support rules in your situation.

Courts issue child support orders with help from the California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) and local child support agencies (LCSAs). While you can work with DCSS on your own, having an attorney can help you ensure that you follow the procedures properly, truthfully, and fully give any information the LCSA and the court need to calculate child support, ensure that you maximize the support you are entitled to.

When you go to court to seek child support, the judge or the DCSS will ask for financial information and information about your life and ability to support your children. This will often include going over your income, your expenses, your health care benefits, and other details about the financial and healthcare support and your children’s needs.

After assessing the situation and calculating the necessary child support, the court will put a support order in place, and the DCSS and a nearby LCSA will enforce the order.

Who Pays Child Support in CA?

Parents typically assume that a father pays child support to the mother to care for the children. However, many families have different parents playing different roles, and many families might have 2 mothers or 2 fathers, which complicates this traditional view. Instead of automatically paying the mother child support, courts must look at different factors to determine who pays child support.

The most important factors in determining who will pay child support are child custody and each parent’s income. Whichever parent has custody of the children for a longer proportion of time will inevitably spend more money out of their own pocket to care for the children’s support. This means that courts typically use child support to reimburse the custodial parent.

In most cases where both parents are willing to be involved in their children’s lives, parents have shared custody. This means that both parents spend time with the children living in their house and may split the time 50/50, share alternate weekends and holidays, share alternate weeks, or follow some other time split. If both parents share the children for an even amount of time, they may split the financial burden evenly, and no child support is necessary.

Child support is also determined based on each parent’s individual ability to pay. That means that courts look at the parents’ incomes to determine who is more able to afford child care, and they assign the support burden accordingly. In the “traditional” family, a mother who does not work will often rely fully on the parents’ father for support. In modern families, both parents may have nearly identical incomes, in which case the decision is based purely on who has the children for more time.

In cases involving extraordinary needs, additional factors are taken into consideration. For instance, children with disabilities or special health care needs might justify additional support beyond what is typically ordered in a child support case. If you are the mother of a child with special needs, talk to an attorney to ensure you get the proper support for your kids.

When Does Child Support End in CA?

Generally, child support only applies to children, and child support ends when the child turns 18. However, there are complex rules that may allow child support to continue past 18.

Child support in California ends when the child both turns 18 and graduates from high school. That means that if your child turns 18 in the fall but does not graduate until the spring, you can continue receiving child support until they finish high school. If your child is still in high school by the time they turn 19, child support will end then, instead.

In some cases, child support may continue longer than high school so that children can get support for room and board and tuition for college. Talk to an attorney to see if this kind of extended support is available in your case.

Ventura Child Support Lawyer for Mothers in CA

If you are going through a divorce or live separately from your children’s other parent, talk to the Ventura child support attorneys at the Law Offices of Bamieh and De Smeth today for help with your child support case. Call us today at (805) 643-5555, or contact us online to set up your free, no obligation consultation.