Source: https://www.divorceutah.com/2017/09/13/can-sign-prenup-legally-forfeiting-rights-child-support-divorce/
Timestamp: 2019-11-21 21:27:58
Document Index: 684009812

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 78', '§78', '§78', '§78', '§78', '§78']

Can you sign a prenup legally forfeiting rights to child support if you divorce? - Divorce Utah
Can you sign a prenup legally forfeiting rights to child support if you divorce?
September 13, 2017 Divorce UtahChild Custody, Child Support, Prenuptial Agreements
Question: Can you sign a prenup legally forfeiting rights to child support if you divorce?
Answer: I practice in Utah, so this is my response from a Utah law perspective.
The question: Can a couple you sign a LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE prenup legally forfeiting rights to child support if they divorce?
My answer: In my professional opinion, almost certainly not. You could sign a prenuptial agreement that relieves a parent of child support, but that agreement would almost certainly not be enforceable if the parent who would otherwise qualify for child support ever wanted to challenge it.
Short of setting the child up with a trust account with a hundred thousand dollars or more in it (as opposed to paying child support on a monthly basis—and let’s face it, few could set up a trust account with a hundred thousand dollars or more in it, and even if one could, that’s just front-loading the payment of child support), I do not believe a court would relieve a parent of a child support obligation.
Here are some excerpts from the Utah Code to give you an idea:
§ 78B-12-105. Duty of parents.
(1) Every child is presumed to be in need of the support of the child’s mother and father. Every mother and father shall support their children.
§78B-12-210. Application of guidelines — Use of ordered child support.
(2)(a) The guidelines shall be applied as a rebuttable presumption in establishing or modifying the amount of temporary or permanent child support.
So unless you can give the court a good reason for why a parent should not have to pay child support to the other parent, it is all but certain that child support will be ordered.
And in Utah there are many kinds of child support, all of which a parent is obligated to pay:
A) Base child support. This is the monthly amount of money paid to the other parent.
B) Health, medical, dental and hospital insurance. This is another child support obligation. See §78B-12-212:
§78B-12-212. Medical expenses.
(1)(a) The court shall order that insurance for the medical expenses of the minor children be provided by a parent if it is available at a reasonable cost.
(b) The court shall, in accordance with Section 30-3-5, designate which health, hospital, or dental insurance plan is primary and which health, hospital, or dental insurance plan is secondary if at any time a dependent child is covered by both parents’ health, hospital, or dental insurance plans.
(3) The order shall require each parent to share equally the out-of-pocket costs of the premium actually paid by a parent for the children’s portion of insurance unless the court finds good cause to order otherwise.
(4) The parent who provides the insurance coverage may receive credit against the base child support award or recover the other parent’s share of the children’s portion of the premium. In cases in which the parent does not have insurance but another member of the parent’s household provides insurance coverage for the children, the parent may receive credit against the base child support award or recover the other parent’s share of the children’s portion of the premium.
(5) The children’s portion of the premium is a per capita share of the premium actually paid. The premium expense for the children shall be calculated by dividing the premium amount by the number of persons covered under the policy and multiplying the result by the number of children in the instant case.
(6) The order shall, in accordance with Subsection 30-3-5(1)(b), include a cash medical support provision that requires each parent to equally share all reasonable and necessary uninsured and unreimbursed medical and dental expenses incurred for the dependent children, including but not limited to deductibles and copayments unless the court finds good cause to order otherwise.
C) Child care, i.e., work-related child care expenses . See Utah Code Sections 78B-12-214 and 78B-12-215:
§78B-12-214. Child care expenses — Expenses not incurred.
(3) In addition to any other sanctions provided by the court, a parent incurring child care expenses may be denied the right to receive credit for the expenses or to recover the other parent’s share of the expenses if the parent incurring the expenses fails to comply with Subsection (2)(b).
§78B-12-215. Child care costs.
(3) The court may impute a monthly obligation for child care costs when it imputes income to a parent who is providing child care for the minor child of both parties so that the parties are not incurring child care costs for the child. Any monthly obligation imputed under this section shall be applied towards any actual child care costs incurred within the same month for the child.
https://www.quora.com/Can-you-sign-a-prenup-legally-forfeiting-rights-to-child-support-if-you-divorce/answer/Eric-Johnson-311