Maryland Child Support Law

Maryland Child Support Law provides for the support of any child, if in case his or her parents are getting divorce or separated. Both parents have a legal duty to support their child based to their ability to provide that support. Since 1990, Maryland has had child support guidelines in effect, which provide a formula for calculating child support based on a proportion of each parent's gross income. Though, the law for Maryland Child Support Guidelines was also amended on October 1, 2010, to keep it useful and up-to-date with the modern day requirements of a child. 

Maryland Family Law is drawn from the sources of the Maryland Code, Maryland Court Rules, and Maryland Case Law. Individual laws regarding Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Alimony, and Divorce cannot be fully comprehended without understanding how they interact with each other and within the elaborate Maryland Family Law Court system, and trying to interpret individual laws without understanding this could decrease the chance of achieving an outcome favorable to you in your case.

Maryland has adopted an "income-shares" model the support guidelines for use in calculating a parent's financial and other obligations for supporting the child in case of divorce or separation. The Maryland Child Support Guidelines based support award is decided according to the parents' income rather than the children's expenses, which are already somewhat taken into account in the basic child assistance charts. The child maintenance is then apportioned between the parents based on each parent's percentage of their combined income. 

The amount of child maintenance or support which is calculated under the Guidelines is presumed to be the appropriate amount of child maintenance to be awarded in cases where the parties combined annual actual income is $180,000 or less. The court may deviate from the guidelines amount if the amount would be unjust or inappropriate. And in situations where the parents' combined incomes exceed $180,000 annually, the court has discretion in setting the amount of child maintenance or support and may consider the children's reasonable expenses and may use an extrapolation method of calculation.

However, the Maryland guidelines for Child maintenance are more than monetary contribution by the parents. It is very flexible, depending upon the requirement of the child and discretion of the judge, as per the circumstance. The court has many choices in creating a support arrangement it thinks is best for the children. A Maryland order for child maintenance or support is as enforceable as any other court judgment or decree. Thus, a parent who is not paid child support can use each and every legal tool available to enforce the order, including wage garnishments, wage assignments, contempt of court decrees and the seizure of the non-payer's property by writ of execution. The number of over-nights the child spends with each parent, which is a major factor that determines the amount of child support ordered.