Chapter 5 Questions

1.  Is current law relating to child support and court-based financial provision for children unnecessarily complicated?

2.  Does the choice between rules and discretion boil down to a choice between certainty and fairness? If so, does the current law of child support strike an appropriate balance between the two?

3.  In what circumstances, if any, should parents be free to agree on no child maintenance being payable?

4.  Is it necessarily a good idea to place greater weight on private ordering? What advantages and disadvantages might that entail for the child, or for either parent?

5.  Should child support liability be more closely tied to whether the non-resident parent sees the child?

6. Where the child spends more or less equal amounts of time with both parents, should no child support be payable by either parent in any circumstances?