MCLE Practical Approaches to Calculating Child Support

Join Verrill’s Rachel Deering as she chairs the MCLE Practical Approaches to Calculating Child Support webcast on July 17, 2025.

Issues of support are present in every divorce or domestic relations case in which minor or unemancipated children are involved. Family law practitioners are intimately aware of the utility of the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, the most recent iteration of which became effective on October 4, 2021. While the text of the Guidelines provides practitioners with useful information about their application, there is still much left for interpretation. As a result, issues regarding income, applicable deductions, and credits for childcare, among other things, become ripe for dispute. The interplay of alimony in the post-Cavanagh world only adds to the increasingly complex discourse, commanding the family law practitioner to consider numerous approaches to support calculations, and the tax advantages or disadvantages to same.

Join our experienced faculty in this program as they explore the steps to approaching child support calculations under a strict application of the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, including considerations of health and dental insurance, childcare, and college-educational costs. The expert panel also discusses methods of advocacy under various scenarios (including a Cavanagh analysis) through the lens of a payor and of a recipient, including the tax implications of each. Lastly, we get a view from the bench as to the best approach for presenting support calculations and the pitfalls to avoid.

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