Listed below are a number of resources allowing families like yours to calculate child support in your state and learn about recent case law challenging child support guidelines on constitutional grounds.

Child Support Group on Yahoo
The Yahoo! support group offers a chance for parents to discuss all child support issues.

Office of Child Support Enforcement
The Office of Child Support Enforcement site includes links to state guidelines as well as recent news on child support issues.

Calculate Massachusetts Child Support
Calculate Mass Child Support on Divorce Net U.S.

Child Support Guidelines Research
Economic research on child costs and support guidelines

U.S. Child Support Guidelines - State-by-State
Comprehensive Resource of Child Support Guidelines in U.S.

• According to the United States Department of Agriculture's Expenditures on Children by Families (2003):

  - Depending on the age of the child, the estimated annual expenses for child-rearing range from $6,280 to $7,840 for families in the lowest income group; $9,510 to $10,560 for families in the middle income group; and $14,040 to $15,350 for those families in the highest income group.

  - Child-rearing is most expensive in the urban West, followed by the urban Northeast and urban South.

• According to a 2001 U.S. Census Report on Custodial Mothers and Fathers and their Child Support:
  

  - About 63 percent of custodial mothers and 38.6 percent of fathers had child support agreed or awarded to them.

  
  

Some of the following research reports and articles are accessible via the Internet. Others are not accessible on the web as they require a password, such as those law review articles found on Lexis Nexis and Westlaw. Articles may be found in your local library or law library.

Epstein, Andrew S. The Parent Trap: Should a Man be Allowed to Recoup Child Support Payments if he Discovers he is not the Biological Father of the Child? 42 Brandeis L.J. 655 (2004)

The law review article explores courts' answers to the question of child support payments in cases of mistaken paternity.

Massachusetts Case Law

D'avella v. McGonigle, 711 N.E. 2d 882 (Mass. 1999) (MS Word format)
The Supreme Judicial Court refused to modify retroactive child support payments due to incarceration of the father. The father contended the payments were in arrears due to impossibility, yet the SJC determined that Massachusetts General Laws explicitly state that such a modification is prohibited.

Dalin v. Dalin, 545 N.W. 2d 785 (N.D. 1996) (MS Word format)
Child support is calculated based upon the state guidelines and is paid by the non-custodial parent.

Gray v. Commissioner of Revenue, 665 N.E. 2d 17 (Mass. 1996)
(MS Word format)
The Supreme Judicial Court held in this noteworthy case that one's bank and credit union accounts may be seized in cases in which one is in arrears on child support payments.

Whitney v. Whitney 325 Mass. 28 (Mass. 1949) (MS Word format)
A frequently-cited case in which the court held that an increase in the amount of support payments to be made is based upon actual need of wife and three young children.

Case Law from other Jurisdictions

Eunique v. Powell, 281 F.3d 940 (9th Cir. 2001) (PDF format)
Mother sued the Secretary of State after being denied a passport. The mother argued that the California statute prohibiting the distribution of passports to those in arrears of child support payments was unconstitutional as it infringed upon here fundamental right to international travel.

Gallaher v. Elam, 104 S.W. 3d 455 (TN. 2003) (PDF format)
Tennessee case challenging state child support guidelines as violative of both state and federal constitutions. Petitioners contended that the guidelines violated equal protection and due process rights in that the existing child support guidelines prohibited consideration of non-court ordered child support payments. The Supreme Court of Tennessee held that the state guidelines did not in fact violate the constitution.


Georgia Dept. of Human Res. V. Sweat, 276 Ga. 627 (Ga. 2003)
Trial court's determination that the state of Georgia's child support guidelines are unconstitutional was found to be with error. The father had been awarded custody and the mother challenged a modification thereof as violative of her right to privacy, namely the right to parental decisions regarding financial expenditures on children. The court erred in applying findings that the state child support guidelines are discriminative against fathers. The appeals court reversed, finding that the guidelines were not based on gender, but rather non-custodial parents.

Tolces v. Trask, 76 Cal. App. 4th 285 (Cal. 1999) (MS Word format)
Case in which a father, in arrears on child support payments, had his driver's license suspended. The father challenged the statute, but failed to show that the statute authorizing the revocation of his driver's license violated his constitutional rights.