State Spotlight - Ohio: Court Must Find Parent Voluntarily Unemployed Before Estimating Child Support

From Court News Ohio:

A domestic relations court must expressly find that a parent is voluntarily unemployed before calculating a child support order based on estimated potential future income, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Wood County Domestic Relations Court skipped a legal step when it determined a man who lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic could pay child support at an amount similar to a calculation based on his eliminated position. The decision reversed a Sixth District Court of Appeals decision, which found the  judge’s divorce decree implied that the father of three was voluntarily unemployed.

Writing for the Court majority, Justice Michael P. Donnelly stated that based on the domestic relations  court’s scant record , it appeared that the judge found David Ayers was “involuntarily unemployed” at the time the child support order was issued. Justice Donnelly wrote that state law requires a domestic relations court to issue a court order expressly determining a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed before “imputing a potential income” for child support payments.

Read more here.