The attorneys will ask you for a retainer fee upfront and you need to decide before you take it to court if you can win and what the grounds are. Run the numbers for your state and see where you stand. Your attorney should be able to tell you if its winnable.

In most states in the U.S. the NCP biodad hiring a lawyer to lower CS has to pay no matter what. It's a gamble. I know here in NYS, odds are they'll find SOME way to make it HIGHER b/c cash strapped states receive matching funds for every CS dollar they collect. Even if they are scalping biodad. That's not their concern.

To give you some idea, GG (biodad I've been with for eight years now) earns $15 an hour and yet pays $1000 a month in CS. There is NO self support reserve and frankly, GG couldn't live on the money left over after CS and taxes.

And this is the lowest it's ever been. Right now he's paying additional add on CS for childcare expenses that the BM hasn't used in over two years, but he's afraid to go to get it lowered and rightly so. The BM has a track record of dredging up old lame receipts and trying to make the CS ever higher; and she's usually successful.

It's not fair but, once again, until the courts abandon the "Old Girl System" (aka militantly pro BM) then nothing will change.

CS will be exorbitantly high due to the states sucking off fed dollars

PAS will continue to be overlooked by the authorities and given a nod and a wink.

we did it ourselves 3 mos ago, we live in oklahoma. Research online child support calculators to see how much you should actually be paying. You will need to know aprox the ex's income. In Oklahoma its based off of the two incomes of the parents and the amount of time each parents keeps the child over night, it may be diff. guidelines in CA. I believe you can print the forms off of the DHS website. It's not that complicated, it was just a small filing fee.
I will look up the names of the forms and get back to you.

Sorry I don't have much help for you but if you live in the following "BM hits the Lottery" states, then you're pretty much screwed. Once a high amount is established, it's considered a precedent by the courts so even if DH's income drops dramatically, they still expect you to pay the same CS amount.

And here are those states:

CA (sorry)
MA
NJ
NY

Oh and another thing. . .if you live in one of the aforementioned states, NEVER go to family court W/O an attorney. I dont' care how good you are at pro se.

I have a legal background and was told by many cohorts that an NCP biodad who goes to court pro se (in CA, MA, NJ or NY) doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. And that's true. All Judges in these states generally are anti-dad.

Pro se may play in the other 46 states but not in the "BM hits the lottery" states.

We filed a Motion to modify (that we typed up ourselves), and an affidavit of service (this just shows you served her a copy, so she knows to come to court)
We printed them off the DHS website. It had step by step instructions, and told you what to bring to court, tax returns, pay stubs etc.
Unless its different in CA, child support is based soley on figures.
You could contact legal aid in California for advice.
That's free legal services.
I don't see how you can be ordered to pay a different amount than what is calculated on your states child support calculator.
Good luck to you!

I honesty think its going to be based on your two incomes and the time he keeps his child, other things factor in like child care and insurance, but all that should be in the child support guidelines or calculator for your state.
We didn't have any problems lowering ours but we live in Okla. Both parties showed up without attorneys and the judge looked at all the figures and changed it.
I would call legal aid just to see if they could give you any advice.
I was super nervous about it, but it ended up not being a very big deal.
My husb has joint visitation 50/50 and she didn't deny it or anything.