child support

iPhone App Calculates Texas Child Support

Dallas, Texas - VernerLegal, an attorney-owned legal software company, has released the Texas Child Support Calculator ("CS Calc") for iPhones. Tested against the Texas Attorney General's child support charts, CS Calc enables attorneys and non-attorneys to calculate Texas guideline child support on the fly. Attorneys can use CS Calc to calculate Texas child support at trial, in mediation, in collaborative law or when consulting with potential clients. Non-attorneys can determine the amount of child support they will pay or receive.

How does it work? With only five inputs, CS Calc determines the precise amount of child support to be paid. The user selects whether he is self-employed, then inputs his gross annual income, the number of children before the court, the annual cost of health insurance for the children, and the number of children (if any) he is already obliged to support. CS Calc applies federal tax law and Texas child support percentages to calculate child support.

CS Calc was created by Texas board-certified family law attorney Jimmy Verner who is the principal in VernerLegal. "CS Calc will be indispensable to attorneys because they can calculate child support with five inputs rather than pore over the Attorney General's charts," said Verner. "Those who are thinking of divorcing or want to modify their child support payments will be able to calculate exactly where they stand."

CS Calc is cataloged at the iTunes store under "Texas child support calculator." It can also be found by searching the iTunes store for VernerLegal.

Texas Lawyer's "Tex Parte Blog" reviewed the child support calculator in a posting called Texas child support? There's an app for that.

Courtesy of Verner & Brumley, P.C. Dallas, Texas

Guns, Drugs and Money Show Ability to Pay

We've previously blogged about inability to pay as a defense to a child support contempt citation. In In re: Corder, No. 01-09-00004-CV (Tex. App. - Houston [1st Dist.] Apr. 10, 2009, orig. proceeding), an obligor claimed an inability to pay but was successfully impeached when a "Sheriff's Petition and Notice of Seizure and Intended Forfeiture" was admitted into evidence. The Petition reflected that upon his recent arrest, the obligor had "$6,639 cash in his pocket and a Ruger .45 caliber pistol, a Marlin .22 caliber firearm, an Ultra High Powered .22 caliber rifle, multiple prescription drugs, and six baggies, believed to contain marijuana." This evidence, the First Court of Appeals dryly observed, "tended to discredit and to impeach his testimony that during the period in question, he was unable to obtain employment."

Courtesy of Verner & Brumley, P.C. Dallas, Texas

No Child Support Offset for Infomal Payments

The Dallas Court of Appeals rejected a father’s argument that pre-divorce payments to the mother should offset post-divorce child support because informal payments do not constitute child support. In addition, a divorce decree does not relieve one of child support obligations in temporary orders. In the Interest of R.F.G., No. 05-08-00285-CV (Tex. App. - Dallas Apr. 3, 2009).

Courtesy of Verner & Brumley, P.C. Dallas, Texas