Child Support Change Takes Travel Expense Into Consideration
Memphis Business Journal - by Christie Watts Kelly
In an era of corporate mergers, job transfers have become a way of life for many executives, who, due to the changing demographics of the American family, often move to a new city accompanied by a blended family or perhaps leave behind children from a previous marriage.
In such situations, visitation becomes an expensive nightmare, according to attorney R. Miles Mason.
Mason says an amendment added to the Tennessee legal code in the 1998 legislative assembly may provide some relief to the added expenses incurred for visitation in these situations.
The amendment, part of statute 36-6-108, states, "The court shall assess the costs of transporting the child for visitation and determine whether a deviation from the child support guidelines should be considered in light of all factors, including, but not limited to, additional costs incurred for transporting the child for visitation."
Attorney and mediator Jocelyn Wurzburg, who serves on the Family Law Code Revision Commission of the Tennessee Bar Association, says expenses can be high, especially when children are too young to travel alone and "a parent has to make the trip to go get them."
But she points to other considerations in setting child support. "A child should not live like a prince in one parent's house and a pauper in the other's," no matter how expensive visitation becomes, says Wurzburg.
Attorney Amy Amundsen, another member of the Commission, says it will be worked out on a case-by-case basis.
For example, "say that the mother moves to Alaska with the child and the father is paying child support. It is determined that the cost of visitation will be approximately $6,000 per year, to be shared by the mother and father. If the father was paying $12,000 per year ($1,000 per month) in child support, this amount might be lowered to $9,000 per year ($750 per month), or the father might continue paying $1,000 per month when the child was at the mother's and pay nothing for the three-month vacation when the child was staying with him," she says.
Mason agrees that the full impact of the new law remains to be seen. "Ultimately, it will be decided by the courts," he says.
