Can Child Support Be Retroactively Reduced?

Child support is commonly ordered when your child does not live in your home and you are separated or divorced from the other parent. Child support is based on factors including your income and the time you spend caring for your child. When you are ordered to pay support, you must comply with requirements and pay all the monies due on time. Sometimes, however, a change in circumstances happens and you cannot continue to meet your support obligations.

Traditionally, it was very difficult to cancel arrears of child support if you did not go to court immediately to get your child support order changed when your circumstances changed.  However, this changed when the Family Law Act came fully into force in British Columbia. Section 152 of this Act allows for a retroactive change of child support obligations under certain circumstances.  Vancouver child support lawyers can help you determine if Section 152 applies to you and can assist with the process of trying to get your child support obligations retroactively reduced.

When Can Child Support Be Reduced Retroactively?

If you experience a hardship that makes it impossible for you to fulfill support obligations, it is best to go to court right away to seek a modification, but sometimes this is not possible.  If you did not immediately go to court to modify your support order and you are now in arrears, you will need to submit a retroactive child support application to seek a fair correction.  This is possible only if you were in arrears through no fault of your own, such as being laid off from work, becoming disabled, the child living with you more than 60% of the time, etc.

Section 152 allows a court to change, suspend or terminate child support orders retroactively provided that one of the following is true:

• There was a change in circumstances since the original child support order was made. This change in circumstances must be a change which would provide justification for a modification in support under the child support guidelines. Also, it must have been a change that would have led the original judge hearing the case to enter a different child support order. An involuntary loss of a job is a good example of such a change. However, if you simply changed jobs to a lower paying one or otherwise voluntarily reduced earnings to try to reduce the amount of support owed, this would not be justification for a change.

• Substantial evidence comes to light that wasn’t available during a previous child support hearing. This evidence also must show that the original child support order was not appropriate and that the judge who entered the order would have made a different decision if all the facts were known and the evidence provided.

• Evidence comes to light of a lack of financial disclosure by one of the parties. If either parent was dishonest about income and/or did not make other required financial disclosures, this could have resulted in the original support order not actually being correct under child support guidelines.  A retroactive correction can be made when the evidence surfaces.

Determining if you should get a retroactive modification of child support and taking the steps to get such a modification can be complicated. The child support lawyers at Ylaw Group can help you determine if a retroactive change is likely to be granted based on your situation and can assist you in going to court to seek this modification.

To set up a consultation about your rights and obligations concerning child support, contact our top-rated lawyers* at 604-974-9529 or email [email protected].

*Leena Yousef is rated as the number one family lawyer in British Columbia by Lawyerratings.com and as the top 3 best lawyers in Vancouver by the threebest.com.Also voted as the best Vancouver family law firm in Vancouver by Top Choice Awards.