Parenting Time Adjustments Are Presumptive
Video Transcribed: Is the parenting time adjustment mandatory under Oklahoma child support guidelines? I’m Child Support Attorney in Tulsa James Wirth. We’re doing a series related to child support in Oklahoma. In the previous videos, we were talking about parenting time adjustment.
That’s essentially where the non-custodial parent has a certain number of overnights, and that reduces the burden for child support because it’s presumed he’s going to be spending, he or she is going to be spending money for the care of that child while they have that child for the additional time.
But is that deduction, is that adjustment mandatory in Oklahoma law? And, we’ve got the answer to that in the statute. It can be found in Title 43, Section 118E Subsection C. And it says, “Parenting time adjustments are not mandatory, but are presumptive.
The presumption may be rebutted in a case where the circumstances indicate the adjustment is not in the best interest of the child, or that the increased parenting time by the non-custodial parent does not result in greater expenditures, which would justify a reduction in the support obligation.”
So, it is not mandatory, but it is presumptive, which means that you’re presumed. If you make the claim for it, you say to the court, “I’ve got these number of overnights, I want to get the parenting time adjustment,” you’ve made the claim so it’s presumptive you can get it, which essentially shifts the burden to the other side to try to rebut why you should not get that.
And there may be circumstances where they say, “Well, yes, he’s got that number of overnights, but it’s not actually causing him additional expenses because of A, B, and C. It’s not in the best interest of the child, because of C, D, and E, whatever the case may be.
They can make the arguments and the judge can decide whether to allow that or not. But because it is presumptive, you should get it unless the other side successfully rebuts it and shows that you should not get it.
Also, for the purposes of the adjustment, it’s important to go back to one of our early videos in this series that defined overnights. Because overnight does not just necessarily mean that the child stayed the night with that parent.
Because it’s statutorily defined, and it provides overnight means that the child is in the physical custody and control of the parent for an overnight period of at least 12 hours. And the parent has made a reasonable expenditure for the resources of the child.
So it’s not enough to have the child overnight, you also have to have the child for at least 12 hours, and you also have to have reasonable expenditures related to that in order to have that overnight count and go after that shared parenting adjustment.
If you’ve got any questions about Oklahoma child support, shared parenting adjustment, that presumption, definition of overnight, really anything else related to Oklahoma law, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney about that privately, confidentially to get legal advice. To do that with somebody at my office, go online, get it scheduled at makelaweasy.com.
