Child Custody & Support
Child custody is perhaps the most serious and difficult of all issues presented in a divorce proceeding. The child custody attorneys at Pennamped & Associates can help you face these difficulties to work out the best plan for you and your children. Custody disputes are too often seen as a weapon that parents use against each other in finalizing a divorce. Some parents see that, if they have custody, the other parent is responsible for paying them child support. In certain cases, attempts to obtain custody are motivated by a desire to make the other spouse "pay" (financially or emotionally), or to be able to exert control. We believe that these motivations are wrong, and advise our clients accordingly. Parenting is a responsibility that continues regardless of the breakdown of a marriage and we try to encourage our clients to take a healthy approach to the process for the benefit of their children, and ultimately for their own benefit as well.
There are many child-related issues that need to be resolved in the event of a divorce. The custody and parenting time schedule is crucially important, as is the child support calculation-and there are many other issues that need to be addressed. You need an experienced child custody lawyer to help you work through these issues.
As is common in so many other areas of family law, the calculation of child support may appear basic and simple, but in fact it is often difficult and complex. In instances of clients who are self-employed, or for individuals who receive income from various sources, such as regular gifts, investments, trusts, annuities, insurance benefits and the like, the mere identification of all income can be a complicated task. Upon identifying both parties' income from all sources, other factors involving everything from the "legitimacy" (for child support purposes) of business deductions to the payment of income taxes must be examined.
Other issues which should be addressed include questions such as who will claim the children as dependents for tax purposes; who will purchase the children's health insurance; who will be responsible for the payment of additional major expenses such as orthodontia?
We believe that it is in the client's best interest to avoid the costly necessity of having to return to court post-Decree to address omitted child-related issues. The best way to avoid having to return to court after your Decree is to anticipate and include in the Decree as many of the potential child-related issues as possible at the time of the divorce. Our many years of experience in addressing these issues help us anticipate items and issues that a client might otherwise not contemplate. Of course, some things cannot be anticipated, such as loss of employment, the physical disability of one parent or the unexpected medical needs of a child. Methods do exist for addressing these issues as they come up.
The State of Indiana has developed guidelines that the courts use in determining issues such as custody, parenting time (including holiday time), and child support. Copies of these guidelines can be reviewed at http://www.in.gov/judiciary/rules/parenting/index.html. Child support goes hand-in-hand with the determination of child custody and parenting time; the Indiana Child Support Guidelines have been drafted in an effort to make support payments less discretionary and consequently minimize disputes over the child support amount. The Child Support Guidelines can be reviewed at http://www.in.gov/judiciary/rules/child_support/index.html and a child support calculator can be found at https://secure.in.gov/judiciary/childsupport/calculator/support.pl
For more detailed information on divorce and its related issues, we invite you to visit our other informational pages, including our
If you need to take action sooner rather than later and would like to speak with one of our lawyers to discuss your divorce, please do not hesitate to call our office at 317.815.9736. Contact Pennamped & Associates today to make an appointment to learn how we can help. If you prefer, you may e-mail us, or fill out the contact form on this page and a representative from our office will be in contact with you shortly. We look forward to helping you.
