Public Hearing on Review of Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines 2010

The Indiana Domestic Relations Committee is in the process of reviewing the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines. There was a public hearing on May 21, 2010. You can watch the entire hearing here. Citizens and legal professionals alike commented at the hearing.

One of the more interesting comments was that the new Child Support Guidelines are encouraging litigation and harming children. The recently amended Guidelines have an enormous impact on the support amount paid by "high earners." Formally, due to a parabola formula, child support leveled off for high earners. However, now, the there is no level off and support is paid as a flat percentage of what is earned. This changes causes the amount of "parenting time credit" a parent receives, which reduces that parent's child support obligation, to have an meaningful financial impact. An attorney commenting at the hearing described that at extreme incomes this can result in each overnight being worth $5,000 in terms of annual child support. He opined that this creates an strong financial incentive for parents to fight over overnights with the child, so as to reduce or increase the parenting time credit. If true this is certainly an issue worth considering, because if the parents are encouraged to fight the child suffers.

There were many other issues brought up at the hearing, such as: the idea that the Guidelines are a minimum suggested amount of time; the first right of refusal/opportunity for additional parenting time; holiday parenting time conflicts; relocation related parenting time issues; how to enforce parenting time; virtual parenting time; and the application of the Guidelines to domestic or family violence situations.

We will follow this as it progresses.

Indiana Court rules Facebook information is discoverable in litigation

There was a recent order from an Indiana Federal Court regarding whether information from social networking sites (SNS) is discoverable in litigation. While this is not a family law case, the reasoning the order could equally apply to a family law case, especially if custody is at issue.

The entire order is linked here.

One side was arguing that production of all of the Facebook postings, comments and "tags" was overly broad, harassing and an unreasonable infringement on privacy. But, the Court held that the information was discoverable and noted that “Facebook is not used as a means by which
account holders carry on monologues with themselves.” If this topic interests you I encourage you to read the order.

For previous blog postings on social networking click here.

Thanks to the Indiana Law Blog for finding and posting the Order. The Indiana Law Blog is a great resource for following Indiana legal news.

New Child Support Calculator for Attorneys - Indiana Child Support

The State of Indiana has published another free child support calculator intended to be used for attorneys and other legal professionals. It is a streamlined version of the calculator designed for parents. The new version is handy to have because it allows for easy changes to the worksheet and it is quicker to run different scenarios.

It should be noted that both the online calculators handle the negative support scenario that is presumed by the Indiana Child Support Guidelines as amended, effective 2010.

See all of our support postings here.