Georgia calculates child support for unmarried parents with the same guidelines and the same worksheet it uses in a divorce.
The Guidelines Do Not Ask Whether You Were Married
OCGA 19-6-15(c)(1) applies the guidelines “in all legal proceedings involving the child support responsibility of a parent,” and states the policy “of affording to children of unmarried parents, to the extent possible, the same economic standard of living enjoyed by children living in intact families consisting of parents with similar financial means.” Subsection (e) lists the proceedings it reaches: “divorce, separate maintenance, legitimacy, or paternity.”
Once Paternity Is Established
The duty itself comes from OCGA 19-7-24, which makes it “the joint and several duty of each parent of a child born out of wedlock” to provide for the child. In Pruitt v. Lindsey, 261 Ga. 540 (1991), the Georgia Supreme Court held that “[o]nce paternity is legally established, the child is on equal footing with all other children. The child is entitled to have both parents provide for his or her ‘maintenance, protection, and education.’” In Monroe v. Taylor, 259 Ga. App. 600 (2003), the Court of Appeals read the support statutes as showing “the legislative intent to provide for the proper support of minor children whose parents never married, the same as for children whose parents do not remain married.” How paternity is established, and what a legitimation does and does not change, are covered in our paternity and legitimation posts.
Both Incomes Go on the Worksheet
In Smith v. Carter, 305 Ga. App. 479 (2010), a father who had never married the mother legitimated their son, and the court then set support under OCGA 19-6-15. The father’s income was $2,222.80 a month and the mother’s $6,384.20, and the guidelines produced a future obligation of $115 a month from him. The Court of Appeals noted that the duty under OCGA 19-7-24 “is not the exclusive duty of either the father or the mother.”
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!