Q: When my ex and I divorced in 2015, we each had a child that was living with us so child support was reserved for future.
Now, my son is at the age of majority and my daughter lives with me. My daughter does not want to live with her mother. I live in Minnesota, and my ex-wife lives in a different state and thinks that a child support calculation would be based off of the state statute of the state she lives in. Our divorce was filed in Minnesota. Is she correct? Or would the child support still be based off of Minnesota statute since that is where the divorce was filed and where my daughter is living with me. Also, she has had many good jobs over the time of our marriage, and now that she knows that she will be made to pay child support, she is underemployed and says that she is living in poverty and can't pay anything. Is there anything that I can do? My divorce also states that we have joint legal custody, but I want to go for sole physical custody. With my ex living in a different state will the judge award this to me? What's the difference between sole physical and custodial parent?
A:
If the decree was entered in MN and your daughter still lives here, the MN child support statute will apply. As for underemployment, this is a fact question and you would need to request her tax returns, pay stubs, and bank records in discovery. The statute allows for support to be based upon potential income (see Minn. Stat. 518A.32).
Physical custody has little practical meaning in MN. What matters is parenting time.
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