Statutes: Guam

(a) The law provides that the Attorney General shall adopt, pursuant to the Administrative Adjudication Law, Child Support Guidelines, a schedule of normal child support payments to be paid by a non-custodial parent to a custodial parent. [5 GCA § 34118]

(b) The law has also created an expedited judicial process agency within the Superior Court of Guam designated as the Judicial Hearings Division. This administrative agency has concurrent jurisdiction with the Superior Court over child support matters. Therefore, all references in the guidelines to court hearings include administrative hearings, all references to court orders include administrative orders, and all references to judges include administrative hearings officers. [19 GCA § 5501, et seq]

(c) While Guam’s Child Support Guidelines are based on an Income Share Model developed by the Child Support Guidelines project of the National Center for State Courts, and the model is predicated on the concept that the child should receive the same proportion of parental income that he or she would have received had the parents lived together, we acknowledge the need for a schedule indicating the fair and reasonable amount of child support to be paid based on the income of the parties.

(d) The Child Support Enforcement Division has, with the help of Policy Studies Inc., Denver Colorado, worked on developing a Schedule, as required by 5 GCA § 34118, to show the fair and reasonable amount of child support to be paid based on the income of the parties.

(1) Exhibit A, attached hereto, is the Updated Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations. This is intended to serve as a base, and not as a ceiling or cap. These figures are intended to operate as a rebuttable presumption in computing child support under the Child Support Guidelines.