When a Kentucky couple with children divorces, property division and custody issues are not the only ones decided. An amount of child support is ordinarily assessed against one parent. Since people’s lives change over the years, the receiving parent may no longer believe the amount is adequate and may request a modification of the amount from the court. Kevin Federline has done this in connection with the amount of support he receives for the two children he has with Britney Spears.
He claims that he can no longer support the children with the $20,000 per month the court ordered Spears to pay in 2008. He says that based on Spears’s publicly reported earnings, he should receive around three times that much, or $60,000. As part of his modification request, Spears must attend a deposition to testify about her finances on the record.
Spears’s father may also have a say in the matter since he continues to serve as conservator over his daughter’s finances. He opposes the increase in child support and claims that Federline wants more money in order to help support the other children he has that he does not share with Spears. Federline claims that he no longer brings in the money that he used to at the time of the original support order, so he needs the amount increased in order to continue providing for the children as he has in the past.
In order to prevail, Federline will have to show the court that his need is based on a substantial change in circumstances. A Kentucky parent would need to meet this same threshold in order for a court to order a modification in child support. Providing the court with the appropriate evidence may involve deposing the other parent, especially if there is reason to believe that the other parent’s income has increased substantially since the original child support order.