Parental obligation to support their children: a reminder

The Civil Code provides that when parents are separated (whether married or not) they must contribute to the maintenance and education of their children.

This contribution can take several forms:

– either in kind (i.e., housing their child, clothing them, feeding them…),

– either in cash (this corresponds to child support paid by one parent to the other: most often it is the parent who houses the child, the one with habitual residence, who will receive the payment of the support).

It is up to the judge to set the amount of child support, and the Court of Cassation is right to remind that only by exception can parents be discharged from their obligation to pay child support.

In this case, in its judgment of November 21, 2018, the Court censures the decision of a Court of Appeal that had exempted the mother from any child support solely on the grounds that her resources were lower than those of the father, who had the habitual residence of the children.

In conclusion: it is necessary, in these matters of setting child support, to be assisted by an experienced lawyer in family and property law so that the amount of the child support(s) can be set in accordance with everyone's rights.