Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Support

For purposes of calculating child support in Florida, a court may impute income to a parent who is not participating in the proceedings. Lack of participation can include a refusal to provide any financial records or information related to a parent’s current income. This was an issue in the case Sadeh v. Calenzani, 3D22-2057 (Fla. 3d DCA December 13, 2023).

In this case, the father sought modification of child support which resulted in the court modifying the amount of child support paid by the mother. The mother appealed the judgment of modification, challenging an imputation of income to her and challenging the trial court’s determination that the child did not spend any overnights with the mother.

The appellate court affirmed, holding “Here, although the trial court did not include specific findings as to the imputation of income in its order on the Father’s Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Support, the trial court did find that the Mother had not filed an updated financial affidavit since 2019, and that the Mother had failed to provide any evidence to support her testimony that she had overnights with the minor child this year. The record on appeal otherwise does not contain transcripts of the hearing. Nevertheless, on appeal the Mother does not dispute that she has not filed an updated financial affidavit, and she does not directly address whether she provided evidence to support her testimony that she had overnights with the minor child. Instead, the Mother attempts to provide this Court with evidence in the form of attachments to her Initial Brief, which do not appear to be included in the record on appeal. This Court cannot consider such evidence in the first instance. [. . .] Accordingly, we are constrained to affirm the trial court’s order because the record brought forward by the Mother is inadequate to demonstrate reversible error.”

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