Law Lessons from Coka-Morin v. Morin, Appellate Division, A-723-04T5, September 27, 2005, not approved for publication:

Parent of Primary Residence (PPR) is the parent, in a shared parenting arrangement, with whom a child resides for more than fifty percent of the time or, if a child spends equal time with each parent, the parent with whom the child resides while attending school. See Child Support Guidelines, Appendix IX-A ¶ 14(b)(1) to R. 5:6A. The parent who is not the PPR is called the Parent of Alternate Residence (PAR). Id. at ¶ 14(b)(2).

The Guidelines presume that one parent will be designated the PPR and the other will be designated the PAR, and although the designation is significant for purposes of determining issues relating to child support, see id. at ¶ 14(g)(4), it is not necessarily true that either parent will be responsible for paying child support in a true shared parenting arrangement. See Benisch v. Benisch, 347 N.J. Super. 393, 400- 01 (App. Div. 2002).

The designation of one parent as the PPR is significant in that the PPR, pursuant to the Guidelines, is presumed to bear the “controlled costs” as defined in the Guidelines. Id. at 397 (citing Guidelines, Appendix IX-A ¶ 14(f)).

The designation of one parent as the PPR generally has a significant impact on the child support calculation. Benisch, 347 N.J. Super. at 398-99. However, the shared parenting Guidelines for child support are applicable “provided only that the court accounts for and makes an appropriate adjustment to reflect the unusual facts respecting selection of a PPR and PAR” where the living arrangements for the child are truly equal. Benisch, 347 N.J. Super. at 400.

The Guidelines make clear that child support does not depend on the time each parent spends with the child but rather upon the resources of each parent that are available for the benefit of the child. The Guidelines presume that the parent with the greater income will contribute more to the support of the child, see Guidelines, Appendix IX-A ¶ 1, ¶ 4, and this is true regardless of the specific living arrangements for a child.

In order to properly account for a child’s living arrangements and the cost to each parent of maintaining a home for a child in the shared parenting context careful attention to the three categories of costs, see Benisch, 347 N.J. Super. at 400-01; Guidelines, Appendix IX-A ¶ 14(f), is essential to the proper application of the child support formula.

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