It is a common refrain that support payments are usually more than the payor wants to pay and less than the recipient wants to receive.  This discrepancy can be extreme when the parties have been used to a particular lifestyle and the payor's income decreases significantly. It is also understandable that a recipient would be skeptical about reducing support if an income decrease for the payor was voluntary, e.g. quitting his or her job. Those were the circumstances in the recent Appeals Court decision: Emery v. Sturtevant .  The husband/payor in the Emery case resigned from a high income position for "personal reasons" and after an extensive job search obtained a much lower paying job in the same line of work.  He then sought a reduction in his child support and alimony which the trial court dismissed indicating that they were attributing income to him at the job he left. The Appeals Court overturned the trial court's decision and directed the lower court to cal...

Even after a divorce the conflict between couples sometimes continues due to an ongoing support order or co-parenting relationship.  If spouses don't settle on an agreed upon process for addressing future changes, these disagreements can often lead to additional court cases. In the case of Fehrm-Cappucino v. Cappucino , a 2016 Massachusetts Appeals Court case, the parties took a modification and contempt action to trial and appeal, resulting in a remand of both cases back to the trial court for new findings.  In  Fehrm-Cappucino , the father sought a reduction in his child support in a modification, and the mother sought a finding of contempt against the father for non-payment of a lump sum owed under their agreement. Here is what we can learn from the Fehrm-Cappucino decision: 1.  Rental Income Is Includible for Child Support Calculations The trial Judge excluded rental income each parent had from properties they had an interest in.  The tri...