Fort Lauderdale Divorce Lawyer Blog
In Scarti v Scarti, the Fourth District Court of Appeals recently reviewed a Florida family law court’s final judgment of paternity where the father challenged the amount he owed to the mother for retroactive child support. In particular, the father appealed the amount of income that the trial court imputed to the mother. In determining the amount the father had to pay to the mother pursuant to the child support guidelines, the court imputed $2,031 net monthly income to the mother.
The mother had a high school GED. In 2004, she earned between $1,000 and $4,500 a month operating her own landscaping company. She also testified that the most she ever earned in a year was $22,000. Her only other work experience was as a waitress at the age of seventeen and working in her mother’s flower shop. Based on her education and prior work history the court imputed $2,031 per month which totals $24,372, more than the mother earned in a given year.
The Fourth District affirmed the imputation of income to the mother in the amount of $2,031 and found that this was not an abuse of discretion.