In the Matter of the State of New Hampshire and Cory R. Lounder

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire held that incarceration may constitute a substantial change in circumstances warranting modification of a child support order. It further held that incarceration-related loss of employment does not, without more, constitute voluntary unemployment or justify imputing pre-incarceration income. The court reversed and remanded for entry of a minimum support order under RSA chapter 458-C.

Holdings

1. Incarceration may constitute a substantial change of circumstances sufficient to warrant modification of a child support order, and the trial court must consider the incarceration and its effect on the obligor's ability to pay.
2. Incarceration that causes termination of employment does not make a parent voluntarily unemployed for purposes of modifying a child support order, absent evidence that the parent voluntarily became unemployed or intended to avoid child support.
3. When an obligor's gross income is less than the self-support reserve and the court determines that the obligor is not voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court must order child support in the amount of the minimum support order.

Questions Presented

1. Whether incarceration and the resulting loss of employment and income constituted a substantial change of circumstances warranting consideration of modification of the child support order.
2. Whether incarceration causing termination of employment constituted voluntary unemployment or underemployment permitting the court to impute the parent's pre-incarceration income.
3. Whether the trial court was required to apply the minimum-support-order provision when the obligor had no gross income and was not voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded