Many children in the Tampa Bay Area are raised by single parents and many of these children’s parents were never married. Florida law requires both parents to financially support their children, and unmarried mothers and fathers are entitled to financial support from the other parent.

If you are an unmarried parent in Tampa Bay, you can obtain child support through a Court Order or an Administrative Order. These orders can be obtained through the assistance of a family law attorney or from the Florida Department of Revenue’s Office of Child Support Enforcement. In many cases, you will need to establish paternity if the non-custodial parent is the child’s father. This can be accomplished in many ways: by producing the child’s birth certificate listing the father as the biological father of the child, a registration on the Florida Putative Father’s Registry, a signed affidavit of both parents or a judicial or administrative order declaring who the father of the child is. In a disputed paternity case, the court may require genetic testing.

Section 61.30 of the Florida Statutes sets out guidelines for the calculation of child support. The amount of child support awarded is based on the number of children in question and the combined net income of the parents. The child support obligation is then divided between the parents in direct proportion to their income or earning capacity. Timesharing also plays a role in how the child support is calculated. Typically, the parent with whom the child lives the majority of the time is paid support by the other parent.

For example, if Jane Doe of Tampa and John Smith of Clearwater have a child outside of marriage and the child lives with Jane in Hillsborough County, Jane’s attorney can petition the court for an order granting her child support. The judge who determines the amount of child support will add Jane and John’s income together to determine the amount of total financial support the chills is entitled to. If Jane makes $30,000 and John makes $70,000 a year, the judge will rule that John must provide 70% of the child’s financial support. If, for instance, the judge rules the child is entitled to a total of $2,000.00 in support per month, John must pay Jane a total of $1,400.00 a month in child support.

If you have any questions about your legal rights or any issue related to a Tampa paternity or child support case contact the Bowes Law Group by clicking here or call us at (813) 421-4422 to schedule a consultation.