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9 Hamline L. Rev. 459 (1986)
Minnesota's Child Support Guidelines: Toward a Fair and Rational Standard for Child Support

handle is hein.journals/hamlrv9 and id is 469 raw text is: MINNESOTA'S CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES: TOWARD A FAIR AND RATIONAL STANDARD FOR CHILD SUPPORT Kathleen E. Pontius* INTRODUCTION In 1983 the Minnesota Legislature adopted statutory guidelines for setting appropriate levels of child support.' These guidelines are the first major statutory revision of the standards for setting child support since 1978.2 The new guidelines, however, are a continuing source of discussion and controversy among family law practitioners, the courts, and the state legislature. The guidelines have been characterized as the family law issue of the mid-1980's,3 and are a major component of a policy revolution in the way custody and support issues are handled in Minnesota and across the country. Because of the significance and complexity surrounding child sup- port issues in general and the guidelines in particular, a comprehensive overview of the Minnesota child support guidelines is presented. The legislative history and policy considerations underlying the child sup- port guidelines are considered to provide a background for analyzing judicial implementation of the legislation. Finally, major areas of con- troversy and current legislative activity are identified in order to sug- gest possible future developments. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY AND POLICY A. Origin and Description The child support guidelines originally were formulated by the Minnesota Department of Public Welfare, Office of Child Support En- * Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Office of the Minnesota Senate Counsel and Research; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School; B.A., University of Minnesota. 1. Act of June 9, 1983, ch. 308, 1983 Minn. Laws 1748 (codified at MINN. STAT. §§ 518.17, subd. 5, and 518.551, subd. 5 (Supp. 1983)). MINN. STAT. § 518.17, subd. 5 was repealed in 1986. See 1986 Minn. Laws ch. 406, § 9. 2. Act of Apr. 5, 1978, ch. 772, 1978 Minn. Laws 1062-88. 3. Lauhead, Formulas for Child Support Statutory Guidelines: A Comparative Analysis, 2 MINN. FAM. L.J. 209 (1985). 4. See generally Lauter, The Custody, Support Crisis, NAT'L L.J., Feb. 27, 1984, at 1, col. 1; Middleton, Collecting a $4B Child-Support Debt, NAT'L L.J., Dec. 2, 1985, at 1, col. 2.

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