When the court is seeking information about a parent’s ability to pay child support, there seems to be no such thing as “confidential” information. According to recent Court of Appeals rulings, an ex-husband can have access to the prenuptial agreement between his ex-wife and her new husband, and an ex-wife can have access to the income tax returns of her ex-husband and his new wife.

However, the information has to be pertinent to the child support issue. With that in mind, the appellate court in Shinkle v. Shinkle directed the lower court to redact or edit the prenuptial agreement so that only the information on the wife’s $50,000 monthly allowance was made available.

For couples creating prenuptial agreements, the Shinkle case suggests they and their counselor should give careful thought to how the payments are structured. If the court determines that the payment is a debt owed to the wife by her new husband, it may be considered income for purposes of child support.

In another case, In re Carr v. Pott, the appellate court upheld the trial court’s decision to allow the ex-wife full access to the income tax returns filed by her ex-husband and his new wife.

“Because the trial court had sufficient reason to believe that there might be some diversion of income from the former husband to the current wife to avoid child support obligations, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the former husband to produce his current wife’s income tax returns and W-2 forms to the Friend of the Court,” the appellate court wrote in its decision.

The father obligated to pay child support was president of the board of directors of a small manufacturing firm and, according to him, the board set his salary. However, his new wife worked in an administrative capacity for his corporation, and she was president of a company that leased a building to the corporation and another company that supplied temporary employees to the corporation.

The state attorney general’s office, the Friend of the Court and the trial courts are all taking a close look at child support, so couples and their counselors need to consider the latest precedent setting information when deciding the best way to resolve child support issues.

For further information regarding these matters, please contact Mr. Buttiglieri at 248.740.5696 or click here to send an email.