Under Oklahoma Law, It’s Completely Gender-Neutral
Video Transcribed:
Do women have to pay child support in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa Child Support Collection Attorney James Wirth, and I’m answering frequently asked questions regarding Oklahoma family law. And that’s the question that came in, is do women have to pay child support?
And I can tell you under Oklahoma law, it’s completely gender-neutral. Doesn’t matter if you’re the mother or the father when it comes to child support, it just matters who is the custodian, who’s the non-custodian.
Or if it’s joint custody, what’s the allocation of overnights? So whoever the primary custodian, in the sense that they’ve got more overnights per year, more than 182 overnights, that’s the person that’s generally going to be receiving child support, and the person who has fewer overnights is generally going to be the person that is paying child support.
But income also factors in. If the party who is the primary custodian has significantly more income than the other party, that may negate what the other party needs to pay depending on the number of overnights.
So those are the two big factors in child support, is how many overnights do you have per year pursuant to the order that’s in place? And how much money do you make compared to the other party?
Those are the things that play in determining who pays child support and how much. There’s a couple of other small factors that factor in, but gender is not one of them. Doesn’t matter if you’re mom or dad, it matters who is caring for and spending money on behalf of the child, and who is spending more and caring less, or who is the non-custodial parent.
If you have questions regarding your specific circumstances and what child support to expect under the Oklahoma child support guidelines, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney about your specific circumstances. If you want to talk to somebody at my office, go to makelaweasy.com.
