Utah basketball fans with child support concerns may be interested in a recent headline-grabbing case involving NBA star Steve Nash. The Laker point guard, who is expected to make about $19 million over the course of the next two seasons, has said he is concerned about high child support payments spoiling his three kids.
His ex-wife Alejandra disagrees, however. She is seeking a child support modification to increase Steve’s payments. Initially, a trial judge dismissed the mother’s modification request, but an appeals court recently ruled that the trial judge has to at least consider making Nash pay more.
In particular, the appeals court in Arizona, where this case is being heard, ruled that the trial judge has to consider more than just the children’s “minimal needs.”
An appeals court judge had no illusions about the fact that the parents are both very wealthy by most people’s standards. Instead, the question was whether or not the children were being allowed “to share reasonably in their parents’ economic good fortune.”
Nash simply wants to keep the child support payments as they are, and the appellate court decision doesn’t mean that the trial judge will ultimately decide that Nash should pay more. The appellate ruling only means that the trial judge has to consider the modification.
While this particular case is unfolding quite publicly, similar issues arise in Utah divorces that don’t make the news. Sometimes a parent will hide assets to avoid having them figured into a child support order, or maybe a parent simply fails to pay. In other cases, a child support modification is the appropriate course of action.