Columbia Divorce and Family Law Blog

Illinois fans of celebrities Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian may be aware that the two have been in a dispute over child support and other issues since they split up in December 2016. The two were only together for about a year, and their relationship ended within months of the birth of their daughter.

Kardashian had asked for his payments of $20,000 per month to be modified because he could no longer afford them. He said he would not be appearing on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" any longer and that he had been damaged by a restraining order Chyna filed against him in 2017. In an Instagram post that she later deleted, Chyna reportedly said she had never asked him for child support.

Many victims of domestic violence in Illinois require treatment at a hospital. When providing medical attention, physicians usually ask about the cause of an injury. Whether it's out of fear of their abuser or a sense of denial, a victim may lie about the cause.

Fortunately, physicians are finding new ways to detect domestic violence. Recently, a group of doctors published a study detailing the radiographic findings in domestic violence. Put more simply, doctors can make more educated guesses as to how a patient got injured based on demographics as well as the pattern of the injury itself. This means that some unusual patterns of broken bones may alert doctors to the possibility of abuse.

While every family court judge tries to rule in the best interest of the child in each case, the reality is that mistakes happen. In custody cases in Illinois and across the United States, judges may make a judgment call that isn't right. Thankfully, parents have the right to appeal most custody orders, but the rules regarding these appeals can vary between one state and another.

The first thing to consider is whether the order in the custody case is final. A final order is one in which the court has reached its ultimate conclusion on the issue. A final order is typically entered after a hearing is held and all arguments are heard. If an order isn't final, that means there are still issues to be decided at the trial level. Without a final order, an appeal isn't appropriate yet. The rules regarding these appeals depend on the laws of the state the court sits in, so parents may want to consult an attorney with experience in family law in their state.

As Illinois parents know, child support is usually the responsibility of the non-custodial parent. However, while this might be simpler to establish when one parent has custody and the other parent has visitation rights, the question of how child support is paid when parents share custody is more difficult to answer.

Joint custody, or shared custody, happens when parents split legal or physical custody of the child equally. This means that parents share the responsibility of the day-to-day raising of their children. So, while the Child Support Standards Acts governs child support obligations by parents, deciding how and when child support is paid during joint custody is a separate issue, particularly since states have different regulations and formulas for establishing child support amounts. In some states, when shared custody is concerned, child support is not established. In others, the child support amount is split in half and each parent is responsible for that half, or the amount is calculated based on the number of days a child spends with a parent. There are also states where the parent who has a higher income is determined as the non-custodial parent and continues to pay child support. In some cases, the parents reach an agreement about child support payments themselves.