The Better Chancery Practice Blog

Holly and Christopher were divorced in 2007, and Holly had custody. Holly remarried and moved with the children to Pennsylvania.

Holly filed for modification in the Chancery Court of Lowndes County alleging that she was a stay-at-home mom who needed more money from Christopher to be able to pay for the children’s various expenses. She said that the $1,000 Christopher was paying was simply not enough to cover the children’s expenses, and she wanted the judge to apply the child support guidelines at MCA 43-19-101 to increase Christopher’s child support to what it should be at his increased income. 

The chancellor reviewed the parties’ financial statements, along with the other evidence in the record, and found that the statutory amount of child support payable by Christopher should be $1,400. Nonetheless, she denied Holly’s petition to modify based on the fact that Christopher had to pay the expense of visitation between Mississippi and Pennsylvania, and used that fact as a basis to depart from the statutory guidelines, pursuant to MCA 43-19-103, which sets out the critera the court is to use to justify any departure from the guidelines.

Holly appealed, and in Quinones v. Garcia, decided August 28, 2012, the Coa affirmed.

The appellate court rejected several of Holly’s arguments, including that the chancellor had improperly considered her current spouse’s income and that Christopher had manipulated his mandatory deductions, and held that it was proper for the chancellor to deviate from the statutory child support guidelines where the judge ” … makes ‘an on-the-record finding that it would be unjust or inappropriate to apply the guidelines in the instant case.'” Chesney v. Chesney, 910 So. 2d 1057, 1061 (¶7) (Miss. 2005) (citing McEachern v. McEachern, 605 So. 2d 809, 814 (Miss. 1992)). The court found substantial evidence to support the chancellor’s decision.

When you are trying a child support case, don’t get in lock-step with the idea that the statutory guidelines are inflexible. Look at the deviation criteria. If one of them applies — upward or downward — in your case, use it to your advantage. Offer evidence to support your argument. In this case, Christopher’s attorney saved his client $400 a month.