Yes. Our statute gives us direction on what is required to modify a child support order. Such an order may be modified or vacated at any time upon a request of the court and a showing of changed circumstances. However, the change in circumstances must be substantial. It is not usually enough that a parent’s income has increased for the modification to be granted. The party must also show, in addition to the increase in the income of the parent, that the needs of the child have also changed to a point that it is a substantial change of circumstances. The commentary to the guidelines also provides for modification under certain circumstances. If a child support order is three years old or older and there is a difference of 15% or more between the amount of the support in the existing order and the amount of child support which would be calculated under the current conditions, this is presumed to be a showing of a substantial change of circumstances warranting modification. Again, this only applies to orders which are three years old or older. Many times parties will set child support in an out of court agreement. In order to modify the support amount, a party does not file a motion to modify since there was no order to modify. Instead, the parties would file a lawsuit asking the court to set child support for the first time. There is some debate under the case law currently in place in this State that a party must show a court that the amount set in the agreement is inappropriate before the court has the power to set a new amount. However, this burden appears to be significantly less taxing than to show a substantial change of circumstances. When, and if, the court sets the child support the order of the court is now controlling and the parties will be entitled to utilize all the remedies available through the courts.
