{"id":907,"date":"2011-03-12T10:54:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T15:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/blog_news\/?p=907"},"modified":"2011-03-12T10:54:29","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T15:54:29","slug":"tennessee-divorce-attorneys-child-support-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/2011\/03\/12\/tennessee-divorce-attorneys-child-support-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Divorce: Child Support Guidelines V.S. Agreement of the Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Tennessee Divorce: Child Support Guidelines<\/h1>\n
\"Purple<\/a>
Chattanooga Attorneys for Divorce and Child Support<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a Tennessee divorce<\/strong> when there are minor children, child support<\/strong> and child custody<\/strong> are among the many issues that must be dealt with by the parties and the court.\u00a0 Tennessee law and the courts actively encourage divorcing parents to attend mediation<\/a> and attempt to resolve their divorce action by agreement.\u00a0 We have previously dealt with the question of whether child support can be waived<\/a>.\u00a0 But another question arises : Can the parties in a Tennessee divorce<\/a> agree to a child support amount<\/strong> that is not within the Tennessee Child Support\u00a0 Guidelines, waive child support for a temporary period of time<\/strong>, or substitute the payment of other debts for child support?<\/strong> In other words, if the parties in a divorce make an agreement as to child support can or should the divorce court approve the agreement and issue an order which sets child support at an amount<\/strong> which is not in conformance with the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tennessee Courts Must Enforce Child Support Guidelines<\/h2>\n

According to\u00a0 the Tennessee Court of Appeals\u00a0 the trial courts (Circuit, Chancery, General Sessions, and Juvenile Courts) “must be vigilant gate-keepers to assure compliance with the applicable child support laws so the parties do not enter into invalid agreements which may pose a threat to the welfare of children or perpetuate a fraud upon others.”\u00a0 The Court of Appeals in a 2008 appeal from the General Sessions Court for McNairy County brought by the State of Tennessee Department of Human Services reversed<\/strong> the trial court’s final order which approved a Permanent Parenting Plan which allowed the father to escape his child support obligation<\/strong> until the parties sold one of their two (2) parcels of real property.\u00a0 The court did not accept the father’s argument that his payment of the mortgage and other expenses on that property was in effect child support.<\/p>\n

Deviations From Child Support Guidelines<\/h3>\n

In this case, the Father was relieved of his child support obligation for an indefinite period of time. The Court went on to explain that when the trial court approves and incorporates an agreement as to child support, the trial court must use the Child Support Guidelines<\/strong> to review the adequacy of the child support provision.\u00a0 Any deviation from the Child Support Guidelines must be explicitly stated on the record<\/strong>, and the court must specifically find that a deviation from the child support guidelines is appropriate under the circumstances of the case to serve the best interest of the children or to provide fairness to the parties.<\/p>\n

Be sure that you thoroughly discuss your divorce agreement with a domestic relations attorney<\/strong> to be sure that it complies with Tennessee law and the Tennessee child support<\/strong> guidelines.\u00a0 Even if the divorce court errs and approves a Permanent Parenting Plan that does not comply with the law, it could be reversed on appeal, resulting in additional attorney fees, court costs, and unnecessary stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can child support be waived or set at an amount that is less than required by the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines? Discuss this issue all other issues regarding divorce with a Tennessee divorce attorney.Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,16,17,20,30],"tags":[53,86,87,88,136,220,243,258,328],"yst_prominent_words":[1602,1600,568,559,453,1529,1603,1601,389,586,700,952,580,560,485,572,561,578,1028,1176],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"has-excerpt","5":"post-907","7":"format-standard","8":"category-divorce-lawyer-chattanooga-tennessee","9":"category-domestic-relations-family-law","10":"category-domestic-relations-attorneys","11":"category-family-law-attorneys","12":"category-tennessee-divorce-attorney","13":"post_tag-attorney-at-law","14":"post_tag-child-custody","15":"post_tag-child-support","16":"post_tag-child-support-guidelines","17":"post_tag-divorce-lawyer","18":"post_tag-lawyer-legal-professional","19":"post_tag-mediation","20":"post_tag-permanent-parenting-plan","21":"post_tag-uncontested-divorce"},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Todd Couvillon","author_link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"hoot-small-preview":false,"hoot-large-preview":false,"hoot-medium-preview":false,"hoot-wide":false,"hoot-extra-wide":false,"hoot-boxcontent":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Todd Couvillon","author_link":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Can child support be waived or set at an amount that is less than required by the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines? Discuss this issue all other issues regarding divorce with a Tennessee divorce attorney.Read More →","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplelawfirm.com\/law-and-you-chattanooga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}