North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Even though the defendant-mother had significant income from capital gains during the two years prior to the child support hearing, since capital gains are a highly variable type of income, they can only be used to calculate current, regular income ...

Tagged with: support

After moving herself and her infant from county to county, including Mecklenburg County, the respondent-mother was living in Cabarrus County, and her baby was living in Rowan County when the baby’s caretaker contacted the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services, ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice

Although the defendant-mother presents her issue on appeal as a challenge only to the imputation of income, the trial court actually used imputation of income as an alternative basis for its determination of the mother’s income. The trial court’s unchallenged ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

In its permanent custody order, the trial court changed the parties’ temporary week on/week off custody arrangement to one in which the defendant-father gets visitation only every other weekend during the school year. The findings of fact fail to demonstrate ...

Tagged with: custody

Where the trial court found that one of the parties’ real properties, valued at $80,000, was unencumbered on the date of separation, but that the defendant-husband later mortgaged the property to his brother in the amount of $72,000, the trial ...

Tagged with: Valuation

Where there was neither a motion to modify child support nor any evidence presented about that issue, the trial court should not have modified defendant’s child support obligation sua sponte. We affirm the trial court’s custody modification and attorneys’ fee ...

Tagged with: Child Support

At the conclusion of the parties’ custody hearing, the trial court announced that it would give the parties joint physical custody of their child; nevertheless, the trial court was free to make a different ruling in its subsequent written order, ...

Tagged with: custody

The court rejects defendant’s argument that cohabitation requires a showing that the dependent spouse’s new relationship has an “economic impact” that is “akin to the impact that would be created by remarriage.” Instead, the economic impact of a new relationship ...

Tagged with: Alimony

The respondent-grandparents were awarded custody of their grandchildren, “Jonah” and “Zeke.” Consequently, the parents’ subsequent relinquishment of their parental rights to Jonah and Zeke didn’t automatically warrant the dismissal of the grandparents from the G.S. Chapter 7B proceedings concerning the ...

Tagged with: Child Custody

Despite receiving a raise, the plaintiff-husband reported that his net monthly income fell, due in part to an extra $500 being withheld from his pay for federal taxes, leaving a “deficit” of $306 per month, and leading the trial court ...

Tagged with: Alimony