Louisiana Child Support & Spousal Support: A Plain-Language Guide for Parents and Spouses is the definitive, Louisiana-specific roadmap to understanding how support is really calculated, modified, and enforced in our state’s courts.

Across four decades of Louisiana family law practice, Louisiana trial attorney Stephen Rue and Rue Law Firm have handled approximately 5,000 divorce, custody, and support matters for Louisiana families. Rue has been voted “Best Divorce Lawyer” by Gambit Weekly’s Best of New Orleans Readers Poll, and he brings that front-line courtroom experience directly to you in clear, practical language. This volume in the Louisiana Family Law Compass Series focuses on what most parents and spouses worry about first: How much will I have to pay? How much will I receive? Is this fair under Louisiana law?

Unlike generic national divorce and child support books, this guide is written specifically for Louisiana child support and spousal support, including how our income shares child support model, community property rules, and fault-based alimony provisions actually work together. You will see, step-by-step, how judges, hearing officers, and attorneys move from raw income documents to a final support number. You will also learn what information, documents, and strategic choices most change the outcome in a real Louisiana courtroom.

Inside this book, you will learn how to:

• Understand the legal framework of Louisiana child support before a single number is calculated, including the core principles courts apply in every case.

• Apply the Louisiana income shares model: combined adjusted gross income, guideline tables, and proportional allocation between parents.

• Identify what counts as income in Louisiana (wages, overtime, bonuses, self-employment, in‑kind benefits, rental and investment income) and how underreported or hidden income is uncovered.

• See how self-employment income is dissected in court, including which “business expenses” are truly necessary and which are really disguised personal spending.

• Add health insurance, work-related childcare, and extraordinary medical, educational, and activity expenses to the basic guideline amount the right way.

• Calculate and challenge the parenting time (overnight) adjustment so that support reflects real costs without turning custody into a financial weapon.

• Spot the most common calculation errors that lower or inflate support—outdated tables, miscounted overnights, missing expenses, and failure to impute income when a parent is voluntarily underemployed.

• Prepare for Louisiana hearing officer and district court proceedings with organized financial disclosure that judges and hearing officers actually rely on.

This book is written for Louisiana parents and spouses who are:

• Seeking to establish, modify, or enforce child support.

• Requesting or defending against interim or final periodic spousal support.

• Self‑employed, business owners, or dealing with an ex who is hiding or understating income.

• Already working with a Louisiana family law attorney and want to understand the framework before the first hearing so they can be an informed, effective client.

This book is an educational guide, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney‑client relationship with Stephen Rue.