Is child support part of your alimony payment?

In the case of Lin v. Lin, 37 So.3d 941 (Fla. 2nd DCA 2010), the trial court impermissibly double-counted child's expenses when the court awarded Wife alimony including such expenses within her need.  The Wife's financial affidavit demonstrated her monthly need to be $1,637.75, which included expenses paid for the parties' child. The trial court awarded $1,700.00 per month in alimony to meet this need but then awarded child support, making the total monthly award $2,405.76. The District Court held:

1. "An award of alimony must be based on the recipient spouse's need for alimony and the paying spouse's ability to pay… Thus, an award of alimony that exceeds the recipient spouse's need constitutes an abuse of discretion."

2. "In addition, an award of alimony that includes amounts for children's expenses that have already been accounted for in a child support award constitutes an impermissible double-counting of those expenses and requires reversal."

3. "Because the resulting alimony award partially duplicated the child support award and exceeded the Wife's monthly need, the award constituted an abuse of discretion that requires reversal."  

            This case is important for two reasons.  The first reason is that an accurate financial affidavit is very important.  Too many litigants don't spend the time to account for every expense and it will hurt them financially at trial if the case doesn't settle.  The second reason is that a lawyer needs to scrutinize the other parties financial affidavit and child support guidelines for irregularities that will cause his client to pay more than the law requires.