If you are one of several million people who are now unemployed or have had a significant decrease in your income due to the coronavirus, you may want to talk to an attorney about how that affects your child support obligation.
Material Change in Circumstances.
In Nebraska, you can apply for a modification of child support if there is a “material change in circumstances”. For child support purposes, a material change in circumstances exists when your child support amount decreases by 10% due to a change in your income. (Note: the 10% decrease is in the child support amount itself, not a 10% change in your income). Also, the change in your income has to have lasted for 3 months and must be “reasonably expected to last for an additional 6 months.”
If you have an obligation to pay child support and your income has decreased, it may be worth your time to have an experienced attorney recalculate your child support obligation to determine if there is a 10% decrease in the child support figure.
While you will be required to continue to pay your child support as ordered by a court, the sooner you file a request to modify, the better. Any modification to your child support obligation cannot occur until you file your request in court. Filing a request for a modification does not mean your child support obligation will automatically be modified and it may take some time to get the modification finalized, but you can ask for any change in the child support to be retroactive to the time that you filed.
Self Help Forms
The Nebraska Supreme Court website has more information and forms that you can use to file this request on your own here. If you want to discuss your options with an attorney, give us a call.
This article should not be construed as legal advice. Situations are different and it’s impossible to provide legal advice for every situation without knowing the individual facts.
