Best Family Law Attorneys in Cleveland, OH

Clients tell me one of the reasons they want to divorce their spouse is because he/she is a lazy unemployed or underemployed slob and now they are left wondering how they are going to get child support from this person. When a parent chooses not to be employed or voluntarily leaves their job it is only fair that a court “imputes” their income. What does that mean exactly? It means that the court may assign that parent income for the purposes of calculating support, regardless of what that parent is actually earning. It may be that the parent is working a 40 hour work week, but still considered underemployed if that parent is earning less than their potential or even if the parent routinely worked many more hours during the marriage. The Ohio Revised Code defines “potential income” as income a parent would have earned if fully employed. The court must review the following criteria in determining the actual amount: parent’s prior employment experience, parent’s education, parent’s physical and mental disabilities (if any), the availability of employment in the geographic area in which the parent lives, the prevailing wage and salary levels in the area, parent’s special skills and training, if there is any evidence that the parent has the ability to earn the imputed income, age and special needs of the child (who is under the child support), parent’s increased earning capacity because of experience, parent’s decreased earning capacity because of a felony conviction and any...