Court Opinion

ID: 9581862
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:19:44.050448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:18.236893
License: Public Domain

Hunstein, Justice,
concurring specially.
Because of the importance placed by the legislature upon the consideration to be given the child support guidelines in OCGA § 19-6-15, Pruitt v. Lindsey, 261 Ga. 540 (1) (407 SE2d 750) (1991), the legislature provided for careful scrutiny of any variance therefrom by requiring “a written finding of the special circumstances” justifying the variance. OCGA § 19-6-15 (c).5 Thus, I concur completely with the majority’s holding in Division 1 recognizing the mandatory nature of the written findings requirement in all variance cases. I write specially, however, because I would go further than the majority in merely “urging” trial courts to enter written findings in all child support guideline cases. Rather, I would hold that, in order to give effect to the legislative intent that variance from the guidelines be carefully scrutinized, a requirement of written findings in all child support guideline cases must be imposed. This follows from the fact that, except in cases where the evidence is transcribed and is without conflict, in the absence of written findings there can be no scrutiny of the award, no determination whether or not the guidelines actually were *672followed. Instead, the parties to the award will be left to ponder the bases for the award and the reviewing court will be obligated by legal presumptions to conclude from nothing that the amount of child support was properly calculated. A finding of “nothing,” when combined with the presumption of regularity in judicial proceedings, completely undermines the importance placed by the legislature on the mandatory application of the guidelines and the careful scrutiny of any variances therefrom, a problem amply demonstrated by the facts of the instant case. Without imposing a requirement of written findings in all child support guidelines cases, the problem presented by this case will continue to occur and undermine the legislative intent behind OCGA § 19-6-15.
Therefore, while I agree that the case must be remanded to the trial court, I would do so in order to obtain written findings regarding the determination of appellant’s income, the application of the guidelines to that income, and an explanation of what, if any, special circumstances were considered if variance from the guidelines was deemed justified.
I concur completely in Divisions 2 and 3.

 As noted by the majority, its holding is consistent with the 1994 amendment to OCGA § 19-6-15 (b).