On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Thursday, February 5, 2015.
We noted in our immediately preceding blog post that child support in Illinois “is a topic centrally marked by subjectivity.”
That is, families are organic units, with support-related concerns and outcomes necessarily being different in every case. Our February 3 blog entry duly notes that, remarking as well on the material impact that judicial discretion over support matters can play in a given case.
An online overview of child support considerations in Illinois renders it quite apparent that a judge’s close and singular involvement in support matters can have a weighty — indeed, outsized — effect on outcomes.
That judicial element of oversight and power perhaps owes most to the fact that state guidelines governing the support process are myriad and fluid. The above-cited overview refers to the “complicated calculation” that attends support matters. That complication essentially operates as an open-handed invitation to a judge to exercise ample discretion in family law cases focusing on support entitlements and corresponding duties.
A family law court will closely look at a non-custodial parent’s income in every support matter, searching for a payment amount that seems fair and sustainable. The number of children in a family is also of obvious and central relevance to any judge fashioning a support order.
Close and studied input from a proven family law attorney can often (and materially) influence support outcomes. An experienced divorce and child support lawyer can help uncover all income sources, for example, or help identify income exemptions that are statutorily recognized. That attorney can also help identify changes in family status that logically call for judicial modifications to a support order.
Any person with questions or concerns regarding child support in Illinois can obtain prompt answers and candid advice from a seasoned child support attorney.