Child Support in Florida was made easy by the Florida Legislature. We have a statute (61.30) that outlines child support for us. Child support is determined by adding together your net income and your spouse’s net income, and depending on how many children you have, the legislature has already figured out for you how much you should spend to raise your children, given your net available income. Each spouse contributes a certain percentage to that “income pie”. Multiply your percentage by the amount the legislature has set as child support, and that tells you how much child support will be. Note: in alimony cases, alimony must be figured before child support, since the paying spouse affects both parties’ incomes, which must be determined before calculating child support.

In addition to baseline child support, there are calculations for health insurance and day care expense, if applicable. Those amounts are added to the base child support obligation or allocated between the parties. Each party is credited with the amounts that they pay on behalf of the other party, since only one parent pays for health insurance and for day care, although both are responsible for their percentage. Uncovered medical, dental, psychological and orthodontic bills and co-pays are also paid on some percentage basis (whether 50/50 or proportionate to your incomes). Special needs children are subject to additional consideration.

You’ve been in a relationship, living with this woman for a couple of years. She gets pregnant, and gives birth to a beautiful baby girl. You’re there, and you sign the birth certificate. A few months later, the two of you get married, and you live happily all together and you have another child together. Seven years pass. Your wife tells you she thinks you aren’t the father. She’s been in touch over the internet with the man she was also sleeping with at the time your daughter was conceived. And he’s coming to meet her. You’re adamantly opposed. You realize your marriage is over. But she’s telling you that you have no rights; that DNA confirms he’s the father and “he wants his daughter”. What now?

Good news. You’re in total control. Because you signed the birth certificate, and then married the child’s mother, the law treats her as though she were born during the marriage, and you are the legal father. You do have the right, but only you have the ability, to disestablish paternity of your daughter IF YOU WANT TO. If you want to continue to raise your daughter, and you want to maintain that relationship, you can assert your absolute right as the legal father, and this other man has no rights whatsoever. Nor can you or your wife demand he pay child support or otherwise be responsible for the child. In your divorce, you will be treated as though you were the child’s natural father, and will have all of the parental rights and responsibilities