Virginia Child Support Laws Fairfax Attorney

The law in Virginia states that a parent paying child support must continue making the payments until the child reaches the age of 18. These are mandatory payments by parents who have a duty to support their minor children. Whether the parents are married or married in the past is overseen and not regarded as important to whether they pay juvenile support or not. In Virginia most minor support cases occur following a divorce, or if the father has not married the mother and is not providing support.

In the case of shared custody, the courts will assess many factors to come to the amount each parent will pay. The court will look at the income of parents, the shared expenses and the amount of time each parent has custody. These factors come in to play when deciding the amount paid by each parent and whether one parent will cover the cost on behalf of the other.

This amount is usually found in the Virginia Code Section 20-108.2.

Child support payments must be paid until the minor reaches the age of 18. However, in some certain cases, juvenile support payments should last an extra year. This is as long as the minor is still a full-time high school student at the age of 19; the minor should also not be self-supporting and should still be living in the home of the parent receiving the juvenile support payments.

There are additional circumstances in which juvenile support should be and is allowed to be further extended beyond the juvenile’s 18th birthday or high school graduation. This includes if the child is severally and permanently mentally or physically ill and if this illness previously entitled the child to juvenile maintenance even before his/her 18th birthday. It also includes if the child for any reason is not capable of living independently or supporting himself or herself. Also, the child may decide to remain in the home of the guardian receiving payments for juvenile maintenance

Regarding the amount and duration of juvenile maintenance payments, parents are free to choose, however, a court will only enforce and approve these enforcements when they are in the best interest of the child. For example, in such agreements, parents can decide to carry on the juvenile maintenance payments into the Childs adulthood, past the courts set age of 18. In these cases, the court cannot disagree and will enforce the arrangements.

Parents who do not pay juvenile maintenance may be put into prison for up to six months. There could also be a fine of up to 500 dollars along with attorney fees and court costs. The legal basis which can place a guardian in prison is “contempt of court.” This means that the person is not following a court order. In this case, the guardian has a right to be represented by an attorney. If there is evidence the guardian’s income is too low or absent or the result of the hearing will likely end in jail time then the guardian is entitled to an attorney free of charge from the government. If the guardian does end up in prison a petition to the court asking for a reduced juvenile maintenance should be put in place.

If you need a Virginia Child Support lawyer to help you with your juvenile maintenance case in Virginia, call us at 888-437-7747. Our Virginia Child Support attorneys can help you. C