Car Insurance --
For The Child & Child Support
| The Court determined that in this case, where the Car Insurance was for a new driver under the Age of 18 that Car Insurance can be added to Child Support. |
In a Decision – Fichter v Fichter - the Court Held that under appropriate circumstances the cost of Automobile Insurance can be ADDED to Child Support!
A snippet:
The court finds that, based upon the totality of a family's economic circumstances, a court may in its discretion find good cause to deviate from the guidelines and require each parent to contribute additional reasonable and affordable monies towards a newly licensed teenage driver's car insurance. Good cause may logically include, but not necessarily be limited to, the special nature and importance of car insurance and the need to adequately protect a child as a newly licensed driver.
. . .
The court notes that reasonable motor vehicle insurance coverage is highly critical to protect a teenage driver's health, safety and welfare. Further, reasonable coverage is equally significant for protection of the public at large, as any innocent third person in the wrong place at the wrong time can be seriously hurt by a teenager's inexperience behind the wheel.
. . .
Reasonable insurance coverage for a new driver may be practically unaffordable and unattainable by the custodial parent without additional and equitable contribution from both parents, above and beyond whatever one may be paying in standard "guideline-level" support. Additionally, the cost for the custodial parent is generally sudden and dramatic, in that the expenditure is necessary as soon as the teenage driver obtains the license, and can economically destabilize a conservative family budget.
. . .
All of these factors may logically constitute good cause for a deviation or adjustment from the guidelines, if and when necessary, in order to provide reasonable motor vehicle insurance coverage for the protection of a child. For these reasons, regardless of whether the cost of coverage for a new teenage driver is technically considered as included or excluded under the guidelines, the end result may as a matter of financial equity be exactly the same in terms of additional parental 16 contribution toward this very important expenditure. In treating the matter of financial support, our courts have always looked beyond a parent's claims of limited resources and economic opportunity, and have gone far to compel a parent to do what in equity and good conscience should be done for the children. See Lynn v. Lynn, 165 N.J. Super. 328, 341 (App. Div. 1979).
. . .
Under Appendix IX-A, comment 18, a court in its discretion may still utilize the Guidelines to determine post-high school support if an over-eighteen child commutes to college from a parent’s home. Id. at 2643-44. There is, however, no legal requirement or compulsion for the court to still use and apply the guidelines at that time, especially if the net effect of such utilization is to dangerously reduce or eliminate the child's ability to secure reasonable motor vehicle insurance coverage. Instead, child support--including contribution to the teenager’s car insurance--may be analyzed under the non-guideline, statutory factors set forth in N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23. Therefore, the legal argument that guideline-level child support already includes a non-custodial parent's contribution to car insurance is very short-lived at best, and even if accepted by the court, may become completely moot soon after entry of an order regarding same.