Q: My wife is filing for divorce and we have a 5 yr old, we both have agreed on joint custody with no child support.
She asked me how much$ can I commit to giving a month for the Divorce paperwork she doing! Me and my wife make the same amount per hour yet she has other income from a hair salon owns & works by herself . With that being said am I still going to have to pay her something a month like child support?
A: Apparently you have not BOTH agreed. I cannot tell you how often this comes up. Someone calls me and tells me we have reached an agreement and the case is uncontested but when it comes time to sign nothing could be less true. You do not have an agreement. It does not necessarily mean her motives are bad but you are definitely going to end up paying child support unless you seek custody (true shared or otherwise) of your child. You need to at least use tax returns or bank account deposits to get an estimate of her actually earnings and then sit down with an attorney and see how child support calculates out. From there you will know whether what she is asking you to pay is a "good deal" or not. Child support is not an emotional calculation but a mathematical one. If you don't know the mathematical calculation for what a court would likely have you pay you do not know whether what she is offering is fair or not.
A: Hello. Whatever you think you have agreed to, you need to have an attorney review any settlement agreement prior to signing. It sounds like you are not sure exactly of the terms between you two and what implications await if you sign documents without explanation. Best of luck.
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