In California, paying child support does not mean that you have the right to visitation with your child. Your child support payments and visitation status have no link to each other, so if you do not have custody rights or visitation of your children, you may still be required to pay child support.
Child Support and Visitation With a Protection Order
If your spouse or children have filed a domestic violence protection order against you, they could file for child support payments when they filed the order. This protection order may also limit your visitation rights and contact with your children until your hearing, as well as after the hearing. Despite not having legal visitation rights to your children, you will need to pay the court order child support payments or risk being charged with contempt.
Sole Custody and Child Support
In certain cases, a parent may be granted sole legal and physical custody of their children, with the other parent not receiving visitation rights at all. In addition to sole custody, the custodial parent will most likely be granted child support payments from the non-custodial parents. The reasoning behind granting child support payments and sole custody with no visitation is that while it may be unsafe or counterproductive for the child’s wellbeing to spend physical time with the parent, the paying parent is still responsible for the financial obligations of the child.
Child support payments will cover:
- Clothes
- Food
- Shelter, including housing costs
- Educational costs like school supplies or tutoring
- Health insurance and medical bills
If ordered, any additional child custody payments can go towards:
- Extracurricular activities like sports registration fees, music lessons, or other activities
- Additional educational expenses
It may be upsetting as a parent to not have visitation rights with your children while still paying child support, however, your payments are your contribution towards caring for your children. You should take comfort in knowing that you are still providing for your child even without being there in person or seeing them.
If you have questions about your child custody situation and child support payments, call our Murrieta child custody attorney at (951) 418-2770 to schedule a case consultation.