A noncustodial parent must be personally served with a Summons & Complaint or Petition for child support. The Summons will provide instructions on how to request a court hearing. Noncustodial parents have 2 options once served with this civil action: contact the CSE agency to voluntarily Stipulate to a child support amount, or if you don’t agree to the amount or dispute paternity, the noncustodial parent must file an Answer with the court. He or she has 30 days to do one or the other. If a noncustodial parent fails to act within 30 days, he or she is subject to a Default Judgment.

Child support guidelines vary from state to state. But generally the criteria for establishing child support amounts is typical throughout the United States and these guidelines are established by each state’s legislature. The amount is determined by each parent’s net income including allowable deductions. These generally are:

Noncustodial parents must provide health insurance coverage for the children if it is requested by the custodial parent, if the child is on Medi-Cal or MediCaid, and if it is available to the noncustodial parent through his or her employer or at a reasonable cost. Any uncovered medical or dental expenses are usually ordered to be paid equally by each party. CSE agencies also have the ability to "impute" or "presume" income on the noncustodial parent if they do not have actual verified income information in the case file. Noncustodial parents need to be aware of this as a Default Judgment may set an amount of child support that is not in accordance with the actual income and does not include any allowable deductions. Another reason you should never allow a Default Judgment.