Baseball star locked in child support dispute

Baseball fans in New Jersey are probably familiar with Miguel Cabrera, who is a Major League first baseman. Some may have even heard that he is now in a battle off the field with a former girlfriend. Although Cabrera is married and has three children with his wife, he also has two children with the former girlfriend.

Reportedly, Cabrera had been paying the woman informally. He had also provided other gifts and the like for the woman and their children, including expensive vacations and a very nice home in another state. However, the woman is now suing Cabrera for a child support order of $100,000 a month, alleging that Cabrera’s children with her should enjoy the same standard of living as Cabrera’s children he has had in his marriage.

The woman may have a point. Since the baseball player makes $30 million a year on his major league salary alone, $100,000 a month amounts to less than 5 percent of his gross income each year, which on the surface seems reasonable. Through his attorneys, the player has countered that the point of child support is to provide for the needs of his children, and what he has been providing more than covers those needs.

While this case is in a different state and does not involve a divorce, it still illustrates some important points about child support cases in New Jersey. For one, as this post has mentioned before, child support becomes a lot more fluid when one or both parents earn a lot of money and have lots of property. The end result of this is more legal wrangling and greater complexity that may need to be resolved with an attorney’s help.

More generally, child support cases can easily turn messy, even if established guidelines apply. Again, a parent may need to help of a seasoned advocate to get their case resolved.