How does the court determine child support in a particular case?
Since 1988, Virginia, as a result of changes in Federal law, has utilized child support guidelines to determine child support. Child support guidelines adopted in Virginia utilize the “income shares model,” which was designed to provide the child (ren) with the proportion of parental income which they would have received had the household remained intact. Under the Virginia statute, the amount of child support produced by the guidelines is presumed to be the correct amount of child support. In a judicial or administrative proceeding for determination of child support, the Court is permitted to deviate from the guideline amount under certain prescribed circumstances, which are set out in the Code. If the court deviates from the presumptive child support amount, it must make written findings stating that the guideline amount would be either unjust or inappropriate based upon the statutory factors. In order to “run” the guidelines in a particular case, it is necessary to know the gross mo
