If you are paying Child Support in New Jersey for child/children born of the relationship or marriage, and you have more children, can your child support be reduced? In many cases, the answer is yes. However, there are many components to this formula, including the income of the other parent(s) of the new child(ren), your income and/or wealth status and whether there has been an increase or decrease in the receiving parent’s income. In most situations, a simple recalculation of the Guidelines can answer this question.
If, however, if you have many more children after the original child support order is entered, will the adjustment be entered to include all of your children who are dependent upon you? Take for example Elon Musk or Nick Cannon. Keeping in mind that both individuals are worth a substantial amount and would have no problem paying child support, would an individual in different financial circumstances in fact be able to reduce their child support for their older children?
Elon Musk is believed to have either thirteen or fourteen living children with at least four women. Putting aside the issue of jurisdiction and custody, He has either seven or eight under the age of 19 (X, age 4, Strider, age 3, Azure, age 3, Exa, age 3, Techno, age 2, Arcadia, age 1, and Seldon and an unnamed child under the age of 1), as well as five older children (Vivian, age 20, Griffin, age 20, Kai, age 19, Saxon, age 19, and Damian, age 19). While it may be assumed that the older children’s custodial parent(s) are no longer receiving child support, that issue is fact sensitive. Regardless, there are seven or eight children that are not only of age to receive child support, but for lengthy periods of time. If Mr. Musk was earning, for example, $200,000/year, it is conceivable he could apply for a reduction of child support for each older child every time a new child was born with a different partner.
Similarly, Nick Cannon has twelve children with six different women. None of his children are over the age of 19: Monroe, age 13, Moroccan, age 13, Golden Sagon, age 8, Powerful Queen, age 4, Zion, age 3, Zillion, age 3, Zen, age 3, Legendary Love, age 2, Onyx, age 2, Rise Messiah, age 2, Beautiful Zeppelin, age 2, and Halo Marie, age 2. Again, every time another child was born to a different co-parent, under the laws in N.J. Mr. Cannon could move to reduce Child Support to the other five women.
While it is much more common to have only a few more children, the outcome is still a change in financial responsibility, and in the cases illustrated above, this change could be drastic. Further, the receiving parent might petition the Court for proof of paternity if the paying parent moves to reduce Child Support based on other dependent deduction.
What is clear is that these types of situations must be navigated with the help of a skilled matrimonial attorney, whichever side of this equation you are situated. Our expert attorneys at Edens Law Group can help you steer your way through the Court system to a fair and reasonable outcome. Call us at 908-879-9499.
