Q: The mother of my child is remarried, does that affect the amount of child support that I pay?

A: Almost certainly not, unless she has remarried to some person who is affluent or there are other extenuating facts.

Here's why:

In Texas, child support is rebuttably presumed to be set in accordance with the "child support guidelines", which simply are percentages of income. For example, if you have one child, you pay 20%, two children 25%, and so forth. If you have children by another person, there is a different percentage, depending on the number of children. For example, if you have one child in question and you would normally pay 20%, and now if you have another child by another mother, the percentage drops from 20% to 17.5%, and so forth. Note: you will now find yourself paying 35% for the two children, not 25%. Why? because it would be 17.5% per child x 2 = 35% instead of two children by the same mother!

Also remember at the outset I said "rebuttably presumed" - this means the law/the judge is already assuming, before hearing or knowing any facts about the case, that he/she will follow the percentage guidelines. Period. End of story. HOWEVER, you have the right to argue that the Court should deviate from the presumed guidelines based on additional factors which are set forth in the Family Code.

Depending on the facts of each case, it is certainly possible to get a deviation from the guideline amount with good "lawyering".

Good luck!

A: A: Almost certainly not, unless she has remarried to some person who is affluent or there are other extenuating facts.

Here's why:

In Texas, child support is rebuttably presumed to be set in accordance with the "child support guidelines", which simply are percentages of income. For example, if you have one child, you pay 20%, two children 25%, and so forth. If you have children by another person, there is a different percentage, depending on the number of children. For example, if you have one child in question and you would normally pay 20%, and now if you have another child by another mother, the percentage drops from 20% to 17.5%, and so forth. Note: you will now find yourself paying 35% for the two children, not 25%. Why? because it would be 17.5% per child x 2 = 35% instead of two children by the same mother!

Also remember at the outset I said "rebuttably presumed" - this means the law/the judge is already assuming, before hearing or knowing any facts about the case, that he/she will follow the percentage guidelines. Period. End of story. HOWEVER, you have the right to argue that the Court should deviate from the presumed guidelines based on additional factors which are set forth in the Family Code.

Depending on the facts of each case, it is certainly possible to get a deviation from the guideline amount with good "lawyering".

Good luck!