New Child Support Changes coming in March of 2018.

In March of 2018, the child support guide lines will be modified for the first time in years. There will be some substantial changes, however no one really knows what actual result these will have. It seems that the legislature modified the guidelines for situations in Juvenile Court, and did not really address the situation on Domestic Relations Court (married or divorced parties). In March, the entire amount of the cost of health insurance will be deducted from the parties gross income for the purposes of the calculation. The assumption will be that the “custodial parent” will be the health insurance obligor (provide health insurance). Previously just the cost to insure the child was captured, and the respective cost was divided between the parties based on their respective percent of income. Further in 2018 there will be three steps of “deviation” or reduction to child support based on the number of overnights the non-residential parent has parenting time. The first step is over 90 night, and seems to warrant a 10% downward deviation. The second step is over 140+/- nights and warrants a further deviation, however they have not addressed what percent deviation this amount will be. At this time the standard schedule in Cuyahoga County is at 138 nights, so this will be interesting to see how this plays out. There is a 3^rd deviation warranted at over 145 nights. Again, a 50/50 schedule seems to warrant a pretty substantial deviation downward in child support. There has been no specific direction given on if this this a 25%, 50% or more deviation. It will be interesting to see how this evolves in the near future.