Negotiating Child Custody & Child Support
Your children and their well-being will be the most important aspect of your divorce, and custody and parenting time determinations may be the most contested and emotionally difficult issues you face. We will work with you, and when necessary, fight for you, to resolve custody and parenting time disputes to meet you and your children’s needs.
In Oregon, "joint" custody is only available if both parties agree to it. Otherwise, one parent or the other will obtain sole and legal physical custody of the children. Sole custody simply means that one parent will have the sole legal ability to make decisions about certain things (such as where a child attends school), but it does NOT mean that the parent without legal custody loses his or her rights as a parent or cannot have an equal amount of parenting time.
Both you and the other biological parent of your child have a legal obligation of financial support for each of your children, regardless of whether or not you were ever married, and regardless of whether you have joint custody or one parent has sole custody. Child support is required until the child turns 18, or 21 if the child is attending school and qualifies for continued support under state statute ORS 107.108.
The amount of child support due from one parent to another, as mandated by the state of Oregon, is an amount that will be calculated by specific legal guidelines. The factors used to calculate child support are:
1. Each parent's income
2. The percentage of time each parent has with the child or children
3. The supported party's ability to earn, and
4. Other guideline deductions such as health insurance.
