Michigan Child Support Law

This is a basic introduction to Michigan child support law.

Michigan Child Support Support Guidelines

Michigan's child support law states that the Court shall order the amount of support required by the Child Support Guidelines, unless the Court determines from the facts of the case that application of the Guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate. A former provision allowing the parents to agree to deviate from the Guidelines has been eliminated; now, even if the parents agree to another figure, the Court must still find the Guidelines amount to be unjust or inappropriate before accepting the agreement. Both Judges and the parties to the case have very little discretion to depart from the Guidelines.

Since you have little discretion on child support issues, I strongly recommend that you not attempt to negotiate your own child support figure.  Instead, have your attorney do a support calculation for you, and stick with that figure unless there is a legitimate dispute about incomes or other factors upon which the calculation is based.  Rely on your attorney to assess this for you.

I do not recommend that you calculate your own child support.  The formula is sufficiently complicated that there is a substantial risk of error.  However, if you would like to review the actual Child Support Guidelines, here are copies of the 2008 Michigan Child Support Guidelines Manual and its 2008 Supplement.

If you decide to ignore my advice and want to calculate support on your own, don't try to do it using the math formulas in the Guidelines Manual.  Instead, buy a child support calculator to do the math for you. There are two:  the MarginSoft calculator and the Springfield calculator.  Please recognize that the calculators assume you know and understand the rules set forth in the Guidelines Manual.  Therefore, the sequence you follow in calculating support is:  first, know and understand the rules in the Manual; second, gather the relevant information needed to do the calculation; then, enter the information into a calculator and get the result.  If you jump right to the calculator and start putting in information, you may wind up with an incorrect result and not know it. 

Factors Affecting Amount of Support

The primary factors in the Guidelines formula which have the greatest impact in most cases will be the number of children each parent has, the number of children the parents have together, the custody arrangement (how many nights each child spends with each parent), each parent's income (or ability to earn income, if not working), tax status of parent (filing status, number of exemptions claimed, etc.), the cost of medical insurance coverage, and the amount of any child care expense.  There may be other factors depending upon the facts of your case.

Obtaining A Support Order

In divorce cases, there is usually a temporary support order obtained early in the case, and then a final support order attached to your Judgment of Divorce.  Support orders may also be obtained in other types of cases, including separate maintenance, paternity, custody and family support act cases.

Modifying A Support Order

Even "final" support orders are not really final, until the obligation to support your minor child ends.  Support orders are typically modified for a change of circumstances in one of three ways:

• By stipulation:  you can have an attorney calculate the support for you and prepare a proposed support order.  If the other parent will consent by signing the order, the attorney can obtain the Judge's approval without the need for a hearing. 

• By motion:  you can file a motion to modify support.  You can hire an attorney to do this for you, or you may file a motion "in pro per" with paperwork available at the Friend of the Court.  If doing this yourself, recognize that you have the burden of proving entitlement to the modification and how much the Child Support Guidelines say the support should be set at.

• By Friend of the Court support review:  you may request the FOC review your child support order.  Unfortunately, the FOC is not required to do this more often than every three years, and probably won't do it more frequently (not out of some perverse desire to hurt people, but due to chronic underfunding with too many cases and too few people to work on them).  If the FOC makes a recommendation, you need to check it to make sure they did not make a mistake.  Mistakes by FOC usually occur because one of the parents did not give FOC all the information necessary for an accurate calculation.

When Child Support Ends

Home   Planning for Divorce   Domestic Violence  Divorce Procedures   Defending Divorce   Custody and Parenting Time   Alimony   Property Division   Going to Court   Negotiation   Mediation  Arbitration   Annulment   Separate Maintenance   Paternity   Attorney Fees    Forms   About Michael Idema

Michael Idema

Divorce Lawyer

6410-A Alpine Ave NW

Comstock Park, MI 49321

(Between 7 & 8 Mile Roads)

mike@michaelidema.com

(616) 647-2200

This is the Child Support Page

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Divorce Basics

• Planning for Divorce
• Domestic Violence
• Divorce Procedures
• Defending Divorce
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• Child Support
• Alimony
• Property Division
• Going to Court

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• Negotiation
• Mediation
• Arbitration

Annulment

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Forms

About Michael Idema

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