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Despite an appeals court ruling overturning state guidelines for calculating child support, the Department of Human Services is "of the opinion" the current rules are in effect until the issue is settled by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The state Court of Appeals in recent months has twice struck down state child support rules as unconstitutional because they fail to consider a parent's obligation to all of his or her children when setting support for children of another relationship.
The ruling in a Knoxville case in January is on appeal to the Supreme Court. That case is almost identical to one from Shelby County that was ruled unconstitutional last week.
Though he said he would not tell courts what to do, "It is our opinion that the guidelines are still in effect, pending the ruling of the Supreme Court,'' said William Russell, general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Human Services in Nashville.
The ruling last week involved a Memphis man who said the costs of raising two children in his marriage should be considered when setting payments for the support of a child from a previous relationship.
The guidelines, which have been in effect since the late 1980s, do not allow consideration of children other than those in the support order.
The latest ruling brought a wait-and-see response from Juvenile Court.
"Really, there is no change until the Supreme Court rules on the Eastern District case that is now on appeal,'' said Mitch Morgan, director of child support at Juvenile Court.
Meanwhile, Morgan said the court was fielding calls Monday from parents who wanted to know if their child support obligations would be affected.
Morgan and others said the impact could be considerable if the Supreme Court agrees the guidelines are unconstitutional.
"There are lots of cases where children are born and an order is set, and the obligor remarries and has other children who are under no court order,'' Russell said. "So he may have two or three sets of children, and it could cause everybody to have to go back and reconsider. If the Supreme Court sides with (the two cases) then I think you would see a lot of petitions to modify.''
Local lawyers who handle such cases applauded the rulings.
"I think this ruling is long overdue,'' said David Caywood. "Ever since this issue first arose I have taken the position that it was unconstitutional to place some children in the first-class section of an airplane and the other children back in coach.
"That is exactly what has happened. These children have nothing to do about the progression in which they were born, nor whether they were born into a conventional family or unconventional family.''
Fellow attorney Kay Farese Turner agreed.
"What happened under Tennessee child support guidelines is that it treated after-born children unequally,'' she said.
She said there are a number of significant inequities in current child support guidelines, some of which end up with a noncustodial parent paying unrealistic sums for child support.
Gail Sevier, the attorney who represented the plaintiff in the case in Friday's appeals court ruling, said there is debate among lawyers about how child support should be calculated, since the appeals court "didn't give any guidance on that.''
She said that technically, Juvenile, Circuit and Chancery courts could go ahead and modify cases now, but many probably will wait for the Supreme Court to rule.
- Shirley Downing:
Thanks for the update! Damn child support people. It is something I myself often wondered about. I have a new daughter and that was never considered in my old support order - which is now put on hold due to X's adoption: Although I got a new letter yesterday saying they were still taking support out of my check from my new employer and holding it at CSEA until they have all the paperwork done (which could take a few months). They already admit she is not going to get the money and I will get a refund from what I am paying now, but still have to have it come out until they get around to having the judge modify the order. Will be a nice savings account though :)