There are many issues that face people as they work through the divorce process in Washington. For those of us who are parents, some of the most important of these issues are child support and custody decisions. In our state, child support is determined using factors such as the incomes of the parents and the amount of time that the kids spend with each of them during the year.
The parent who spends the most time with the kids is called the custodial parent. In most cases, it is this individual who receives child support payments from the non-custodial parent of the child. The decisions as to child custody come either through negotiation between the parents or a court order that is issued when parents cannot agree.
In one recent case from another state that may be of interest to our readers in Washington, the decision as to child custody had a direct implication for the amount of child support owed. In that matter, it was held that the father of the child had custody because he had residential custody of the young boy 56 percent of the year. This fact led to the decision by the court that the father did not owe child support to the mother.
There were many factors in the above case that led to the child support decision by the court. As is the case in such matters in Washington, the court looked to all of the factors included in child support decisions before making its order. Because the process can be complicated and child support is important to many parents, it can be beneficial for those seeking to enter the process to complete a full review of the rules that apply in order to achieve the best possible outcome for themselves and their kids.