New York Child Support Lawyer
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of child support in New York - not the simplified version most websites present, not the reassuring fiction that everything works out fairly, but the actual truth about what happens when parents fight over money for their children. Most people think child support is a straightforward calculation. They believe the court takes your income, multiplies it by a percentage, and that number is what you pay. That understanding will cost you dearly.
The real calculation has almost nothing to do with what you earn right now. New York courts have the authority to calculate what you SHOULD earn, what you COULD earn, and what your lifestyle suggests you earn - regardless of what your pay stub actually says. This is called imputed income under Family Court Act Section 413, and it transforms the entire child support process from a math problem into a judgment call. The court isn't measuring your income. The court is measuring its theory of your potential. And that number follows you for 21 years with nine percent annual interest on anything you miss.
That last sentence needs to sink in. New York child support extends until the child turns 21 - not 18 like most states. And arrears accumulate interest at nine percent annually. If you fall behind by two thousand dollars a month for just one year, you don't owe twenty-four thousand. You owe twenty-four thousand plus two thousand one hundred sixty dollars in interest. And that interest compounds. This is not a short-term problem with temporary consequences. This is a multi-decade financial obligation that can destroy your credit, take your license, seize your tax refunds, and ultimately land you in jail.
The Number That Follows You for 21 Years
Heres the thing most parents dont understand untill its too late. Child support in New York isnt calculated the way you think. The Child Support Standards Act creates a formula, yes - 17 percent of combined parental income for one child, 25 percent for two, 29 percent for three. But that formula is just the starting point. What happens next is where families get financially destroyed.
The court looks at both parents combined income up to $183,000 for the current period through February 2026. It multiplies that by the applicable percentage. Then it divides the obligation between parents based on there pro-rata share of that combined income. Sounds simple enough. But heres were it gets complicated. The court can add to your income things you never considered income at all.
Meals provided by an employer. Company cars. Memberships. Free housing from family. Gifts from relatives. Investment returns you could be earning but arent. All of this can be attributed to you as income under Domestic Relations Law 240. Your mother lets you live in her basement rent-free? The court can impute twelve thousand dollars of annual income you never saw. Your company gives you a car? Add the value. Your parents help with your groceries? Thats income now. The court has extraordinary discretion to find income that dosent exist on any pay stub or tax return.
And if your voluntarily unemployed or underemployed - if the court decides your capable of earning more then your currently earning - it will impute income based on what you could be making. This isnt about what you want to do with your life. This is about what the court beleives you should be doing.
What New York Courts Actualy Calculate
OK so lets talk about how imputed income works in practice becuase this is were people get blindsided. In the Remsen case from 2021, a mother claimed she couldnt work due to caregiving responsibilities and health limitations. She had a college degree. The court determined she could reasonably work full-time for minimum wage and imputed that income to her anyway. Her personal situation didnt matter. What mattered was the courts assessment of her earning capacity.
In Pilkington v Pilkington, the trial court imputed income to both parents. The appellate court sent it back - not becuase imputation was wrong, but becuase the trial court hadnt adequately explained how it arrived at those numbers. Think about what that means. The court guessed wrong about both parents income. The parents had to appeal. During the appeal process, support obligations based on those wrong numbers kept accruing. Even after winning the appeal, those parents still had to pay based on the original order while waiting for recalculation.
Heres the part nobody talks about. Support Magistrates have enormous discretion. Your outcome depends heavily on which magistrate you draw. One magistrate might accept your explanation for reduced income. Another might impute your historical high earning years regardless of current circumstances. Theres no guarentee of consistency. And once that initial number is set, changing it becomes extremly difficult.
The standard for modification requires demonstrating an unforseen substantial change in circumstances. In Zenz v Zenz, the court denied modification becuase the changed circumstances either existed at the time of the original order or could have been reasonably anticipated. If you could have predicted it might happen - job instability in your industry, health issues you already had, market conditions affecting your business - it dosent count as unforseen. The trap is set at your first hearing.
The Modification Trap Most Parents Fall Into
Let that sink in. You lose your job through no fault of your own. The company downsized. You file for modification immediately. But getting a hearing takes months - sometimes six months or more. During that entire period, your original support obligation continues accumulating. Modification is not retroactive to when you filed. Its only effective from when the court enters a new order.
So your sitting there, unemployed, watching arrears pile up at $2,000 a month plus nine percent interest, waiting for a court date that keeps getting pushed back. By the time you finaly get your hearing, you might owe twelve thousand dollars or more - even though you did everything right. Even though you filed immediately. Even though you lost your job through no fault of your own.
And thats assuming the court grants the modification at all. If the court decides your job loss was voluntary - if you quit, if you got fired for cause, if you simply refused to work overtime - it will deny your petition and impute income based on what you were earning before. Courts are extremly conservative about downward modifications. Any voluntary reduction in income is frowned upon. Even refusing overtime has been used to deny modification requests.
Heres were it gets even more twisted. Having additional children with a new spouse was ruled NOT an unforseen change in circumstances sufficient to justify modification. The court in Gusler v Gusler determined that remarrying and having more children was something you should have anticipated when you agreed to the original support amount. You were supposed to plan for that possibility. Your new family dosent reduce your obligation to your first family.
How Enforcement Works Without Going to Court
But wait - theres more to this nightmare. Once you fall behind, New York child support enforcement kicks in with a series of administrative actions that require no court hearing whatsoever. The Child Support Enforcement Unit has authority to take action without involving a judge.
Income Execution means your employer receives a notice and starts witholding support directly from your paycheck. This can happen automaticaly once your reported as delinquent. The garnishment limit is 50 percent of your wages if your supporting other children not covered by the order, or 60 percent if your not supporting any other children. Let me repeat that. Sixty percent of your paycheck can be taken without a court hearing.
Tax refund interception begins when your account is more then $50 and two months past due. Both state and federal refunds can be seized. Lottery winnings are intercepted when arrears exceed $50 and winnings exceed $600. Your bank accounts can be frozen and assets seized. Liens can be placed against real estate or personal injury settlements.
Four months past due triggers driver license suspension. How are you supposed to get to work without a license? How are you supposed to earn the money to pay support when you cant drive to your job? The system dosent care. The system is designed to maximize collection, not to consider your circumstances.
At $2,500 in arrears, the State Department denys passport applications. No international travel untill you pay. Credit reporting destroys your ability to get loans, rent apartments, sometimes even get jobs. And throughout all of this, nine percent annual interest keeps compounding on everything you owe.
The Mistakes That Guarentee You Lose
Todd Spodek has seen this pattern hundreds of times. Parents make the same critical errors that destroy there cases before they even get to court. Understanding these mistakes is the differance between a manageable outcome and a financial catastrophe.
Mistake number one - paying informally. You hand your ex cash every month. Maybe your trying to avoid lawyers. Maybe you think you can work it out between yourselves. Theres no documentation. No receipts. No record. Then she files for child support anyway, claiming you never paid a dime. The court has no evidence you paid anything. You get ordered to pay going forward PLUS retroactive support going back up to two years. Youve now paid twice - once informally, then again officially.
Mistake number two - social media. Your posting pictures from vacation. Your showing off a new car. Your lifestyle on Instagram dosent match the income you reported to the court. Attorneys regularly screenshot social media posts to use as evidence of hidden income or higher earning capacity. That fishing trip with your buddies can be used to argue you have more money then your claiming.
Mistake number three - accepting an initial order without fighting. The first support order is critical. Modification later is almost impossible. If you let the court impute income without objection, if you accept a Support Magistrate's estimate of your earning capacity without presenting evidence, your locked into that number. Years later, when you try to modify, the court will ask why you didnt raise these issues initially.
Mistake number four - ignoring the case. Some parents get served with papers and do nothing. They dont show up to court. They dont respond to petitions. The court enters a default judgment - usualy at the highest possible amount. Now your facing an order you never had the chance to contest, with arrears accumulating from day one.
At Spodek Law Group we tell clients the same thing over and over. What you do in the first 30 days after recieving child support papers determins the next 21 years of your financial life. This isnt hyperbole. Its reality.
What Happens When Your Already Behind
Notice the pattern? By the time most people call a lawyer, the damage is already done. There already behind. Interest is already accruing. Enforcement actions are already underway. The question isnt how to avoid the problem - its how to survive it.
Heres the reality. Once arrears exist, they dont go away easily. Courts are extremly reluctant to forgive child support debt. Unlike other debts, child support arrears generaly cant be discharged in bankruptcy. The obligation follows you until its paid in full or your children age out and you somehow negotiate a settlement.
If your behind right now, the first step is understanding exactly how much you owe. Interest has probably pushed the number higher then you realize. Get a formal accounting from the Support Collection Unit. Know what your actualy facing.
The second step is getting current on ongoing support immediately - even if you cant address the arrears yet. Showing the court your making current payments demonstrates good faith. It may help convince a judge to work with you on arrears rather then pursuing contempt.
The third step is exploring whether modification is possible. If your circumstances have genuinely changed in an unforseen way - serious illness, disability, termination without cause from a long-term job - you may have grounds to modify going forward. But remember, modification dosent erase what you already owe.
The fourth step is understanding that jail is a real possibility. Willful non-payment of child support is contempt of court. If the court beleives you have the ability to pay but refuse, incarceration for up to six months is on the table. This isnt an idle threat. People go to jail for child support every day in New York.
Sound familiar? If your reading this at 11pm wondering what happens next, your not alone. Thousands of parents face this exact situation. The differance between those who survive it and those who get crushed by it often comes down to one thing - getting proper legal help before the situation spirals completly out of control.
When You Actualy Need a New York Child Support Lawyer
Look, not every child support situation requires an attorney. If both parents agree on custody and income is straightforward, you might be able to handle things through the Support Magistrate without representation. But theres a massive differance between a simple case and a contested one. And most cases turn contested faster then anyone expects.
You need a lawyer when income is in dispute. If your self-employed, if you have variable income, if theres any question about earning capacity - imputed income becomes the central issue. Support Magistrates arent financial analysts. They make quick decisions based on limited information. Having an attorney who can present your actual financial picture makes the differance between a reasonable order and an impossible one.
You need a lawyer when modification is necessary. The "unforseen change in circumstances" standard is hard to meet. You need to know which arguments work and which dont. You need to present evidence correctly the first time becuase appeals are limited to record evidence only. What you fail to say at the modification hearing cant be raised later.
You need a lawyer when enforcement actions are threatened. Once wage garnishment, license suspension, or contempt proceedings begin, your options narrow rapidly. An attorney may be able to negotiate with the Support Collection Unit, work out a payment arrangement, or identify defenses you didnt know you had.
You need a lawyer when the other parent has one. The asymetry of contested child support with one represented party and one pro se party almost always favors the represented side. Dont fight this battle alone if your opponent has legal help.
What Todd Spodek always tells clients - the system is designed to produce a number and enforce it. Its not designed to be fair. Its not designed to consider your circumstances. Its designed to maximize collection for the child. If your interests diverge from that goal, you need someone in your corner who understands how the game is actualy played.
The Clock Is Already Running
The reality of New York child support is this. The court dosent measure what you earn. It measures what it thinks you should earn. That calculation follows you for 21 years. Interest compounds at nine percent annually on anything you miss. Enforcement can take 60 percent of your income without a hearing. Modification is nearly impossible once the initial order is set. And the mistakes you make in the first hearing haunt you for two decades.
This isnt meant to terrify you. Its meant to prepare you. The parents who understand this system - who come prepared to there first hearing, who document everything, who fight imputed income aggressively, who file for modification immediately when circumstances change - those parents survive. The ones who assume the system is fair, who pay informally, who ignore court papers, who dont understand the stakes - those parents get destroyed.
Spodek Law Group has handled hundreds of child support cases across New York. We know which magistrates are reasonable and which ones impute income aggressively. We know how to present financial evidence that counteracts imputation. We know how to pursue modification when everyone says its impossible. We know how to negotiate with the Support Collection Unit when enforcement is underway.
The phone call costs nothing. Not making it might cost you everything.
That window your operating in right now - between recieving papers and your first court date, between losing your job and falling hopelessly behind, between thinking about modification and actualy filing - that window is closing. Every day you wait, arrears accumulate. Every month you delay, interest compounds. Every hearing you miss or botch, your locked into consequences that last until your child turns 21.
Call us at 212-300-5196. Let us tell you exactly where you stand and what your actualy facing. Because the court already has its theory about what you should earn. Dont let that theory become your reality without a fight.
