Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Support
What is retroactive child support in a Florida family law case? This is support that a court awards dating back to the date the parties no longer lived together or no more than two years prior to the date a petition for support is filed. The court determines how much support should have been paid during this period and orders the party responsible for support to pay it going forward, in addition to any ongoing amount of child support. Retroactive support was an issue in the case McGill v. McGill, 2D22-443 (Fla. 2d DCA February 10, 2023).
In this child support case, the trial court awarded the former wife almost $50,000 in retroactive child support. But the order did not make any findings about the parties’ incomes during the retroactive period. The former husband appealed. The appellate court reversed, holding “In the final judgment here, the trial court did not make any factual findings on the parties' incomes and did not explain how it reached the amount of $47,095.87 for retroactive child support. The trial court also did not attach any child support guidelines worksheets to its judgment. Based on the lack of findings, we reverse the judgment only to the extent that the trial court awarded retroactive child support.”
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