Custody Tab

Family Law - Custody cases in MerusCase have a unique tab labeled Custody. This tab is a useful resource for keeping track of information relevant to custody in the case. You can quickly refer to the petitioner’s and/or respondent’s contact card(s) as well as view particular details about proposed and/or agreed-upon plan(s) for visitation and child support.

You can also use the Child Support Calculator to simplify a great deal of math and quickly save the relevant amounts in the case’s Activity tab.

Entering Custody Details (Proposed)

1. Navigate to the Custody tab of the case in question.

2. Click the Edit button toward the right of your screen.

3. Fill in the numerous fields for Custody Details in the Proposed section:

   • Court Case Number: The case number for this case.

   • Proposed By, Legal Custody Party, Physical Custody Party, Visitation Party: Who is in which role. The drop-down options for each field are pulled from the Parties tab on this case.

   • Visitation Party, Visitation (notes), Timeshare: Details of visitation, particularly who the visiting party is and what the custodial & non-custodial percentages of the timeshare are.

   • Child Support Start & End Dates, Amount, Frequency, Notes: Details of child support, including dates and financial specifics.

4. Click the Save button.

Entering Custody Details (Current Agreement)

This section is largely the same but for a few details (e.g. Agreement Date). You can either manually enter in the information using the same instructions as above for the Proposed section, or you can click Approve Proposal next to the Edit button toward the right in order to transfer the info in the Proposed section to the Current Agreement section. Note that this will overwrite any info in the Current Agreement section.

Child Support Calculator

To use the calculator, simply follow the steps outlined below.

1. Navigate to the Custody tab of the case in question.

2. Click on Child Support Calculator.

3. Fill in the numerous details necessary for calculating child support

   • Timeshare: Fill in the Number of Children and check the below box if Timeshare is the same for each child; if it is, fill in the Timeshare percentage. If not, leave the box unchecked and fill in each child’s individual Timeshare percentage.

   • Monthly Income/Deduction Info: The numbers on everything ranging from Gross Income to Union Dues, for each parent.

   • Monthly Add-On Child Support Info: As above, the necessary numbers (e.g. School Expenses) needed to make the calculations.

   • Allocation Method for Add-On Child Support: The options here are ‘50/50’ or ‘Prorate per Family Code 4061(b),’ the latter of which opens up options for Spousal Support Paid By and Spousal Support Amount to fill in.

4. Back toward the top, click Calculate to run the math for each parent’s respective child support amount responsibility and display the results. You can also click Reset to blank out all of these fields and start over.

5. In the Results box displaying the amount, click Apply to save the appropriate amount in the Custody Details (Proposed) section.

6. Click Save to create a PDF document of these results and all the calculator fields and save it to the case’s Activity tab.