Material Change of Financial Circumstances Child Support Maryland Divorce

Once the court has entered an order for child support that order is subject to future modification. Pursuant to Maryland Family Law Article section 12-104 the court may modify a child support award subsequent to the filing of a motion for modification and upon a showing of a "material" change of circumstances. However the court may not retroactively modify a child support award prior to the date of the filing of the motion for modification. This is a very important point not to miss. As soon as you have a material change in circumstances you must file your motion for modification. The change in circumstances may include things such as the child reaching age of majority, a change of the physical custody, a change of the visitation schedule to exceed 128 overnights per year or may include a change in the income of the parties. For example, if you lose your job file your motion for modification. In the case of Kierein 115 Md App 448 (1997) the court determined that the child support order can only be modify it if there has been a material change in circumstances, needs, and financial conditions of the parties from the period of time immediately preceding when the court last had an opportunity to consider the issue. What qualifies as a material change depends on the facts of each case. In these situations I suggest that my clients, through counsel, for a correspondence to the other party enclosing their income information with proof of income and asked the other side to do the same. The adjustment to the child support order can be done by consent between the parties provided of course the modification still complies with Maryland Child support guidelines. If you are not sure you are entitled to a modification that please feel free to call my office. 1-888-760-7339

Dissipation of marital assets divorce in Maryland

“Dissipation may be found where one spouse uses marital property for his or her own benefit for a purpose unrelated to the marriage at a time where the marriage is undergoing an irreconcilable breakdown.” Sharp v. Sharp, 58 Md.App. 386, 401, 473 A.2d 499 (1984). We have defined dissipation as expending marital assets “for the principal purpose of reducing the funds available for equitable distribution.” Jeffcoat v. Jeffcoat, 102 Md.App. 301, 311, 649 A.2d 1137 (1994).

Whether the use of marital property to pay attorney's fees constitutes dissipation.

In the case of Allison v. Allison 160 Md.App. 331, 864 A.2d 191 the Court determined: As a policy matter, attorney's fees should generally be viewed as a legitimate expenditure of marital funds. Since the law permits divorce, the law should permit spouses to spend the funds necessary to pay for legal services in divorce proceedings. Divorcing spouses usually do not have their own separate funds to pay their lawyers, so a rule that condemns the use of marital funds for legal services simply does not make sense. The doctrine of dissipation was developed as a tool to prevent and remedy economic misconduct that could frustrate an equitable distribution of partnership assets. Expenditures for legal services cannot be fairly characterized as economic misconduct. On the contrary, it should be viewed as entirely appropriate for people facing marriage breakdown to obtain the legal advice and assistance needed to equitably distribute marital assets.

Furthermore, it wastes resources to require spouses either to seek court permission before spending marital funds to obtain legal assistance or to seek a preliminary award of fees rather than spending the money necessary to obtain counsel. The doctrine of dissipation should remain available, however, to provide an avenue for redress if one spouse spends an unnecessary or unreasonable amount of marital funds on legal fees.

Defending Contempt in a Maryland Divorce

Whenever an individual violates a provision of a court order their actions may constitute constructive contempt of the court. Typically we frequently see these types of contempt actions when people fail to pay alimony, fail to pay child support, or fail to obey court orders regarding visitation. A proceeding for contempt must be filed in the same court that issued the order. Just the mention, the statute of limitations for filing a contempt proceeding for nonpayment of child support is three years see section 10-102 of the Family Law article.

My best advice first and foremost is to obey all court orders. However there are circumstances where people simply cannot abide by the court order. Circumstances where an individual is required to pay alimony or child support and has lost his job would be a perfect example of that type of circumstance. The argument that would be advanced to the court would illistate he did not have the ability to comply with the court's order through no fault of your own, he lost his job. The judge will not find you in contempt of court unless there is evidence that you willfully, intentionally disobeyed his order. If you can present evidence that you intended to abide by the order but circumstances occurred beyond your control that prevented you from obeying the order then you stand a very good chance of not being found in contempt.

Siblings and Divorce in Maryland

Ordinarily the best interest and welfare of the children of the same parents is best served by keeping them together to grow as brothers and sisters under the same roof. There is no presumption that the best interest of siblings is preserved by keeping the children together. However generally, Maryland divorce law frowns upon division of siblings. There are a number of cases in Maryland divorce law where the Court has determined that the living arrangement which separated the siblings was to remain in tact since the children were driving in that living arrangement. Davis v Davis 280 Md 119 (1977) is an example where the court upheld the division where the youngest child had resided for two years with the mother without her siblings and had adjusted well to that arrangement. In Byrce v Bryce again the court upheld the division of siblings where the 2 older children had been with the mother and the youngest remained with the father.

If you ever have questions regarding, visitation, or custody or child support issues please feel free to give me a call I'm more than happy to answer your questions. 1-888-760-7339

Venue Affecting Divorce in Maryland

Venue refers to what city or county you can use to file your complaint. It is an important issue in divorce cases.It is important due to the pace of getting cases scheduled and the judge's particular orientation on custody issues. Generally as you will see below venue depends on residency and employment issues.

MD Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings, § 6-201

6-201. In general

(a) Subject to the provisions of §§ 6-202 and 6-203 of this subtitle and unless otherwise provided by law, a civil action shall be brought in a county where the defendant resides, carries on a regular business, is employed, or habitually engages in a vocation. In addition, a corporation also may be sued where it maintains its principal offices in the State.


(b) If there is more than one defendant, and there is no single venue applicable to all defendants, under subsection (a), all may be sued in a county in which any one of them could be sued, or in the county where the cause of action arose.
§ 6-202. Additional actions

In addition to the venue provided in § 6-201 or § 6-203, the following actions may be brought in the indicated county:


(1) Divorce -- Where the plaintiff resides;