Dad Must Pay > $11K in Attorney Fees After Child Support Modification
Tennessee child support case summary on attorney’s fees in modification action.
Sonya C. Franklin Sardon v. Troy Eugene Sardon
The mother and father in this Davidson County, Tennessee, case were the parents of four children, and were divorced in 2007. Under their agreed parenting plan, the mother was named the primary residential parent with 245 days of parenting time per year. The father was granted 120 days of parenting time, and was ordered to pay $2,324 per month in child support. The schedule was subsequently modified, and the father’s obligation was reduced to $1632.
The mother made a subsequent petition to modify, and in 2015, the father’s obligation was adjusted upward by $160 per month in recognition of extracurricular activities. The mother was also awarded $11,500 in attorney’s fees.
The father appealed a number of issues, including the award of attorney’s fees.
The Court of Appeals found that the father did not properly present an argument showing the grounds for his appeal, and that in the absence of a cogent argument, the court was under no obligation to construct one.
On the issue of attorney fees, the father argued that the lower court appeared to have awarded the fees because the court believed the matter should have been settled without trial. But the appeals court noted that the father had not cited any part of the record in support of this assertion.
The appeals court noted that a lower court has discretion to award attorney’s fees to a successful party. It noted that the father had not demonstrated that the lower court abused this discretion. Therefore, it also affirmed the order of attorney’s fees.
No. M2015-01652-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 13, 2017).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support.
See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
