Child Support Committee Update

At the Spring Conference hosted in Nashville, Tennessee, the Committee produced a CLE session titled “Untangling Safety Nets.”  The presenters for the CLE included J. Kevin McIntyre, an Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia, and Rebecca Simpson, a partner with Elpo Law in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The moderator was Sarah White, a Family Law Section Diversity Fellow, who serves as a Staff Attorney for Atlanta Legal Aid.

The "Untangling Safety Nets" session focused on the impact of federal aid programs such as TANF, SNAP, and Social Security disability programs on child support calculations.

At the Fall Conference in Tucson, Arizona, the committee produced a CLE session titled “Show Me the Money - How to Convince the Judge to Impute Income”. The presenters were Michelle Thomas, Esq., Principal of MC Thomas & Associates located in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Brad Taft, Managing Director of Taft Vocational Experts, LLC located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The moderator was Donato "Dan" Palumbo, an associate with Shewmaker & Shewmaker, located in Atlanta, Georgia.

The “Show Me the Money” CLE session provided a focused discussion on imputing income in various jurisdictions and included discussion on how the use of a vocational expert may be useful in presenting evidence in cases where imputation of income is necessary. The Section did a repeat of the “Show Me the Money” CLE session as a webinar in December.

The Child Support Committee is chaired by Kelli Byers Hooper of Fayetteville, Georgia. Lana Hawkins serves as the committee's Vice-Chair.  If you would like to speak at an upcoming conference on a “Hot Topic” regarding Child Support, please contact the committee.