Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
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Morrill <strong>County</strong> v. Darsaklis, 7 Neb. App. 489, 584 N.W.2d 36 (1998)<br />
A parent is required to provide his or her child with the basic necessities of life. Both<br />
parents have a duty to support their minor children, and the amount of child support<br />
awarded is a function of the status, character, and situation of the parties.<br />
The primary consideration in determining the level of child support payments is the<br />
best interests of the child.<br />
<strong>Nebraska</strong> courts have consistently examined a parent’s earning capacity, as well as<br />
actual wages, to determine child support. This is particularly apposite when a parent<br />
receives valuable benefits which are not paid as cash, and also when a parent<br />
unjustifiably chooses to be underemployed or unemployed. See, also, <strong>Nebraska</strong><br />
<strong>Child</strong> <strong>Support</strong> Guidelines, paragraph C(5), which allows deviation from application of<br />
the guidelines if application of them would result in an unjust or inappropriate result.<br />
Peter v. Peter, 262 Neb. 1017, 637 N.W.2d 865 (2002)<br />
In using <strong>Nebraska</strong> <strong>Child</strong> <strong>Support</strong> Guidelines to set or modify support, it is inappropriate<br />
and contrary to the best interests of the children to use income<br />
averaging when the obligor’s income is consistently increasing.<br />
As a general matter, the parties’ current earnings are to be used in setting support.<br />
Riggs v. Riggs, 261 Neb. 344, 622 N.W.2d 861 (2001)<br />
For purposes of [§ 4-204] of the <strong>Nebraska</strong> <strong>Child</strong> <strong>Support</strong> Guidelines, a “meanstested<br />
public assistance benefit” is a benefit that includes a payment in money, or<br />
by assistance in kind, to, or for the benefit of, a person where (1) the eligibility for the<br />
benefit or (2) the amount of the benefit is determined on the basis of the income or<br />
resources of the recipient, such that the benefit decreases as the recipient’s income<br />
increases.<br />
The earned income credit under the federal Internal Revenue Code is a meanstested<br />
public assistance benefit under [§ 4-204] of the <strong>Nebraska</strong> <strong>Child</strong> <strong>Support</strong><br />
Guidelines.<br />
Rutherford v. Rutherford, 277 Neb. 301, 761 N.W.2d 922 (2009)<br />
If a trial court fails to prepare the applicable worksheets, the parties are required<br />
to request that such worksheet be included in the trial court’s order. Orders for child<br />
support or modification which do not contain such worksheets will on appeal be<br />
summarily remanded to the trial court so that it can prepare the worksheets as<br />
required by the guidelines. Such requirement is set forth in this court’s rules. [§4-<br />
203}<br />
Under the guidelines, a deviation in the amount of child support is allowed<br />
“‘whenever the application of the guidelines in an individual case would be unjust or<br />
inappropriate.’”<br />
“Deviations from the guidelines must take into consideration the best interests of<br />
the child.”<br />
In the event of a deviation from the guidelines, the trial court should “state the<br />
amount of support that would have been required under the guidelines absent the<br />
deviation and include the reason for the deviation in the findings portion of the<br />
decree or order, or complete and file worksheet 5 in the court file.”<br />
The guidelines provided that a parent who requests an adjustment in child support<br />
for health insurance premiums “must submit proof of the cost of the premium.”<br />
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