Parental Rights & Obligations

questions & answers

Question: If both parents agree to 50/50 custody and neither want to pay or recieve child support what is the law? Will one of the parents have to pay some amount?

Answer: The most important (and most commonly forgotten) rule you can keep in mind about child support is that it serves the best interests of the children - *not* the parents! So even if the parties "agree" not to pay child support to each other, the court will have an independent legal obligation to ensure that your agreement doesn't hurt the kids. A 50-50 division of parenting time *often* results in a minimal - or even nonexistent - need for child support payments. But not always! Much depends on your respective incomes, who pays the medical insurance, extraordinary child expenses, daycare, and spousal maintenance. You (and the judge) must also consider whether either party is already paying support for other children from a different relationship. In other words, there are many factors that play an important role in the child support calculation, and 50-50 custody is just one piece of the jigsaw puzzle.