What does it mean? What does it cover, and how much is it going to be.
Child support is an amount of money paid by each parent for the maintenance and care of their minor child or children until they reach the age of majority, which in Alabama is 19.
Child support is determined to cover the needs of a minor child such as food, clothing, shelter, etc. A part of the calculations will also include costs of child care and medical insurance
In Alabama at least the amount of child support paid is calculated by a set of guidelines that take into account the parties gross monthly income. There is really no good way to estimate what a support amount will be. The numbers just have to be put to paper and the amount calculated out. Basically though, it will nearly always be about one third of the non-custodial parent’s income. Any child support amount awarded is paid by the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent and it is not controlled or related to any visitation order.