Florida Statute 61.30 dictates the terms and requirements surrounding retroactive child support. Retroactive, or otherwise known as “back-owed,” child support, can be ordered relative to a certain period of time.
Currently, under Florida Statutes, a party can seek recovery of “retroactive child support” which would have been previously due for support of the shared minor child. Upon the filing of a Petition with the court, and an initial determination of child support by the court, a party may seek the recovery of retroactive child support up to twenty four (24) months prior to the date of filing of the request for child support. The amount calculated should reflect the amount they would have been due, at that time, had child support been ordered by the court. The court may consider the parties’ incomes, at that time, with evidentiary corroboration. However, if there is not evidence regarding the parties’ incomes at the prior date, the court may consider the parties’ current incomes for purposes of establishing said retroactive amount pursuant to the Florida guidelines.
Further, there is potential for a party seeking to modify an existing time-sharing plan to seek retroactive child support in various circumstances. First, if a party is seeking to modify the time-sharing and, as a result, modify the child support previously ordered, and they are successful as to that modification, that party may be able to seek retroactive child support from the date the court enters the modification back to the date of the initial filing. Secondly, if the parties previously entered into an agreed upon Parenting Plan and Time-Sharing Schedule with the court, and one party declined to utilize their time-sharing, thereby shifting significant additional overnight time-sharing to the other party, the abiding party may seek retroactive child support. This would be based on the additional overnights that the party had due to the other party’s lack of compliance with the time-sharing schedule and what the ordered support would have been had those been accounted for.
The Rice Law Firm’s Family Division has handled many cases in which retroactive child support becomes a central issue. Our attorneys have served the Daytona Beach, Volusia County, and Central Florida areas since 1986. Contact us today at our Daytona Beach location at 386-310-2914.
