Petitions for Support
Actions to fix child and spousal support before the family courts — from the demand letter that starts the clock through judgment.
Family Law
Support is not a favor — it is a legal obligation. We help parents and spouses fix, enforce, or fairly adjust support, so that the amounts on paper become amounts actually received.
Overview
Under Articles 194 to 196 of the Family Code, spouses, parents and their children, and certain other relatives are legally obliged to support one another. Support is comprehensive: it covers sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical attendance, education, and transportation, in keeping with the family's financial capacity. The amount is not arbitrary — it is proportionate to the resources of the giver and the needs of the recipient, and it may be increased or reduced as those circumstances change.
Timing matters. Support is payable only from the date of judicial or extrajudicial demand, so a properly made written demand fixes the starting point of what you can recover. While a case is pending, the court can grant support pendente lite, so a child is not left waiting for final judgment. And where a parent hides income or understates capacity, our firm's financial depth — led by a CPA-lawyer — helps us trace what is actually there and present it convincingly to the court.
When a parent simply refuses to pay, the law provides teeth: court orders enforceable by execution, and — where the withholding of financial support amounts to economic abuse — criminal liability and protection orders under RA 9262, which we handle through our VAWC and protection order practice. Support issues also commonly arise within custody and annulment proceedings, as part of our broader family law practice.
Scope of Work
Actions to fix child and spousal support before the family courts — from the demand letter that starts the clock through judgment.
Applications for provisional support while the main case is pending — so a child's schooling, food, and medical needs are met without waiting for final judgment.
Documenting the child's needs and the paying parent's true capacity — including tracing understated or concealed income, with the analytical edge of a CPA-lawyer-led firm.
Petitions to adjust support when circumstances genuinely change — rising needs as a child grows, or a real, documented change in the giver's resources.
Enforcing support orders against parents who refuse to pay — execution against income and property, and contempt proceedings for continued defiance.
Where withholding financial support constitutes economic abuse, we pursue protection orders and criminal remedies under RA 9262, including support directives enforced through the respondent's employer.
Common Questions
The Family Code does not fix a specific amount or percentage. Under Article 201, support is proportionate to two things: the resources or means of the giver and the needs of the recipient. Support covers sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical attendance, education, and transportation, with education including schooling or training even beyond the age of majority. In practice, the court looks at the child's actual, documented needs and the paying parent's actual, documented capacity — which is why building the financial record carefully matters so much in these cases.
Under Article 203 of the Family Code, the obligation to give support is demandable from the time the person entitled to it needs it, but it is payable only from the date of judicial or extrajudicial demand. This makes the demand letter important: a proper written demand fixes the starting point of the amounts you can recover. This is one reason we advise clients not to delay — every month without a demand is generally a month of support that cannot be claimed.
Support presupposes filiation — the legal parent-child relationship. If paternity is disputed, filiation must first be established. It may be proven by the record of birth, an admission of filiation in a public document or a signed private handwritten instrument, or, in the absence of these, by other evidence in a court proceeding, including open and continuous possession of the status of a child and, where appropriate, DNA evidence. Once filiation is established, the child's right to support follows. We handle the filiation issue and the support claim together.
Yes. Under Article 202 of the Family Code, support may be increased or reduced proportionately according to changes in the recipient's needs and the giver's resources. A judgment fixing support never becomes final in the sense of being unchangeable — a parent may return to court to adjust it when circumstances genuinely change, such as a child's rising school and medical expenses, or a real, documented change in the paying parent's income. Courts, however, scrutinize claimed reductions closely to prevent evasion.
There are civil and criminal routes. Civilly, a court order fixing support can be enforced through execution — reaching the paying parent's income and property — and continued defiance of the court's order can be addressed through contempt. Criminally, the deprivation or denial of financial support to a woman's child is recognized as economic abuse under Republic Act No. 9262, and a protection order under that law can include a directive to give support, with a portion of the respondent's salary remitted directly by the employer. The right approach depends on the circumstances, and we advise candidly on which route serves the child best.
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