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Child Custody General Glossary of Terms

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Plaintiff: The party bringing the cause of action to the court.

Defendant: The party against whom the cause of action is being brought.

Number of Children: The number of children under the age of eighteen years for whom support payments are being sought. ONLY INCLUDE MINOR CHILDREN. Indicate the number of children, their legal names, and their birth dates.

Custody Types (Shared, Sole)

• Shared Custody: Shared custody is generally where one of the parents has the child(ren) more than 128 nights per year, but less than 236 nights.
• Sole Custody: Sole custody is where one has been granted primary custody of the minor child(ren) and the other party has less than 128 nights visitation.

Monthly Income: The gross amount of money earned, before taxes, including regular over-time and part-time pay, per month.

Pre-existing child support: If child support payments are already being made by one or both parties.

Health Insurance: This is the amount that one or both of the parties pays in health insurance premiums for the child(ren). Usually it is the difference between the total monthly premium payment for a family and the total monthly premium for a single person.

Alimony Paid: The amount of money that one or both parties is paying in alimony to a person from a prior marriage.

Alimony Paid In This Case: The amount of money the Court has ordered that one of the parties in this cause of action pay the other in alimony.

Child Care: The amount of money paid to provide daycare or similar custodial care to provide supervision of a minor child(ren). This can also include live-in care under certain circumstances. In shared custody cases each parties contribution. There may also be circumstances where the non-custodial parent is paying for child care.

Extraordinary Medical expenses: This is where the child(ren) has unusual physical, psychiatric, dental or similar extraordinary medical expenses.

Additional expenses: The monthly amount paid for special tutoring, private instruction (i.e. dance or music lessons), private schooling, etc.

Non-Statutory Computation If you have income greater than $10,000 combined income per month the current statute does not address the required level of child support and is subject to the discretion of the court. There are numerous alternatives for calculating child support on income in excess of the guidelines. You should consider all options or variations in the light most favorable to your position.

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