Section 4076 Of Article 2. Statewide Uniform Guideline From California Family Law Code >> Division 9. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 2.
4076
. (a) Whenever the court is requested to modify a child support
order issued prior to July 1, 1992, for the purpose of conforming to
the statewide child support guideline, and it is not using its
discretionary authority to depart from the guideline pursuant to
paragraph (3), (4), or (5) of subdivision (b) of Section 4057, and
the amount of child support to be ordered is the amount provided
under the guideline formula in subdivision (a) of Section 4055, the
court may, in its discretion, order a two-step phasein of the formula
amount of support to provide the obligor with time for transition to
the full formula amount if all of the following are true:
(1) The period of the phasein is carefully limited to the time
necessary for the obligor to rearrange his or her financial
obligations in order to meet the full formula amount of support.
(2) The obligor is immediately being ordered to pay not less than
30 percent of the amount of the child support increase, in addition
to the amount of child support required under the prior order.
(3) The obligor has not unreasonably increased his or her
financial obligations following notice of the motion for modification
of support, has no arrearages owing, and has a history of good faith
compliance with prior support orders.
(b) Whenever the court grants a request for a phasein pursuant to
this section, the court shall state the following in writing:
(1) The specific reasons why (A) the immediate imposition of the
full formula amount of support would place an extraordinary hardship
on the obligor, and (B) this extraordinary hardship on the obligor
would outweigh the hardship caused the supported children by the
temporary phasein of the full formula amount of support.
(2) The full guideline amount of support, the date and amount of
each phasein, and the date that the obligor must commence paying the
full formula amount of support, which in no event shall be later than
one year after the filing of the motion for modification of support.
(c) In the event the court orders a phasein pursuant to this
section, and the court thereafter determines that the obligor has
violated the phasein schedule or has intentionally lowered the income
available for the payment of child support during the phasein
period, the court may order the immediate payment of the full formula
amount of child support and the difference in the amount of support
that would have been due without the phasein and the amount of
support due with the phasein, in addition to any other penalties
provided for by law.