Tag: Child Support

Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines Are Revised – February 2017

February 13, 2017 | Child Support, Income Calculations, Legal Perspective

Icon for author Brian Vertz Brian Vertz

Parents who are receiving child support in Pennsylvania might get a small raise in 2017 — if they negotiate or go to court under the new Pennsylvania child support guidelines, effective May 1, 2017.  To find if you might be entitled to a raise (or have to pay more), look at the new Pennsylvania child support guidelines that are posted here. The Pennsylvania courts do not automatically grant child support […]

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Paternity Judged by New Standard in Child Support Cases – Best Interests – Says Supreme Court

February 26, 2012 | Child Support, Legal Perspective

Icon for author Brian Vertz Brian Vertz

With a breathtaking sweep of their pens (or keyboards), four Justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week swept away decades of decisional law concerning paternity by estoppel, ushering a new era of parentage litigation, in KEM v. PCS, No. 67 MAP 2011 (February 21, 2012). The facts were relatively simple and commonplace: a married woman had an affair resulting in the birth of a child, who was four years […]

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How to Pay Child Support in Pennsylvania

November 10, 2011 | Child Support, Legal Perspective

Icon for author Brian Vertz Brian Vertz

“How do I pay my child support?” is a question I am frequently asked by clients. Pursuant to federal and state law, child support orders must be paid via wage attachment unless the support recipient agrees in writing to waive it. Even if the wage attachment is waived, the payments must be submitted to the Pennsylvania State Collection and Disbursement Unit in Harrisburg (which we call “SCDU” or “Ski-Doo”). Federal […]

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Child Support Contempt Defendants Not Entitled to Counsel, Says U.S. Supreme Court

August 16, 2011 | Child Support, Court Decisions, Legal Perspective

Icon for author Brian Vertz Brian Vertz

Child support contempt defendants are not entitled to court-appointed representation even in cases where incarceration is threatened, says the U.S. Supreme Court, but the state courts must follow procedures that ensure the fundamental fairness of contempt proceedings. In Turner v. Rogers, Docket No. 10-10, June 20, 2011, the Court considered the rights of a South Carolina defendant who had been held in contempt of a child support order five times […]

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Homeschooling Children Does Not Justify Alimony, says Superior Court

In Kent v. Kent (March 18, 2011), the Superior Court of Pennsylvania rejected a parent’s argument that she should be entitled to collect alimony for a period of eleven years so that she could continue to homeschool the parties’ minor children. It was undisputed in this case that the mother had withdrawn from the workforce five years earlier in order to home-school the parties’ children, which she continued to do up […]

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