Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Support
Child support guidelines worksheets are important to a final judgment. This is because they serve as a reference point when a party wants to modify child support in the future. Failure to attach or file guidelines may require reversal of a final judgment. This was one issue in the case Knight v. Knight, 1D2022-2040 (Fla. 1st DCA March 27, 2024).
In this divorce case, the former husband appealed multiple issues, one of which was the trial court’s chosen start date for his child support obligation which conflicted with the date the court granted the children’s relocation. One of the parties’ children was permitted to remain with the former husband while the former wife relocated out of state in order for that child to finish the school year. Despite, this, the trial court ordered that the former husband’s child support obligation begin prior to the end of the school year, while the child was still living with him. The former husband appealed.
The appellate court reversed, holding “The former husband contends that the child-support calculation should reflect this period that the child resided with him. He raised this issue in a motion for rehearing, but the trial court denied the motion without explanation. Because the trial court did not make any findings or include a child-support worksheet with the dissolution judgment, we have no way to assess whether the trial court considered whether that period qualified as a ‘deviation factor’ or other basis for an adjustment under section 61.30(11), Florida Statutes. Accordingly, we vacate paragraph seven of the dissolution judgment (setting the child support award) and instruct the trial court to make findings that demonstrate the extent to which the period of the older child’s residence with the former husband between April 1 and May 26, 2022, was taken into account.”
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