California Child and Spousal Support: DissoMaster

Though it sounds like some sort of kitchen appliance one would buy on an infomercial, Dissomaster is actually the name of the program most commonly used by California Family Law Courts to determine the amount of spousal and/or child support paid. Because California child and spousal support laws are some of the most complicated in the world, the Dissomaster California software program were able to secure a contract with the state of California and provide the program free of charge to every Judge in California.

The Legal Basis

In 1992, the California legislature adopted the following algebraic procedure to determine child support:

CS= K [HN- (H%) (TN)
CS=Child Support
K=number of children to be supported
HN=the high earner's monthly disposable income
H%=the high earner's percentage of time (physically) responsible for the child
TN=both parents combined monthly disposable income

However, filling the numbers in isn't even half the battle. The part where it gets touchy is in determining "monthly disposable income" for both parents. For this reason, most judges in California will look closely at the child support figures generated by the Dissomaster California program, because it takes all these factors into account, including the actual tax payments and circumstances of both parents.

A Standard of Child Support

In the interest of creating a standard that would be applicable to everyone, the California State Legislature created and passed the formula above in the 1980's. Before that, the court would be forced to make a spur of the moment decision on who must pay what in child support cases. Although this helped to make the court's decisions more fair, the popularity of personal computers meant that by the late 80's the Dissomaster program had become the first choice of most judges to determine a fair amount of child support to be paid.

However, as with most compromises, in the end no one is happy with it. It's important to remember that Dissomaster is the program used to determine support payments if the parties involved cannot come to their own agreement or agree to use a common methodology.

Find A California Family Law Attorney

This article is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the services of a professional attorney. Due to the complicated nature of child support laws, the best possible legal advice is obtained from a lawyer thoroughly familiar with Family Law in California.

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