Family Law Software Version Notes

447.08

For All Users

1. State tax updates. We have updated the tax rates and tables for all states to 2025 rates. This means that Family Law Software has more current rates even than your tax software. Tax software will not be updated for 2025 rates until late fall. One exception: California, which does not publish its current-year tax rates until fall each year. The following states had some changes this year. Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Many of these are simply inflation adjustments to brackets.
   
   
2. Updated Software Help online. We have updated the online Software Help. This help is organized screen by screen in Family Law Software. It gives overviews of what is happening on each screen and useful tips on what and how to enter information on each data entry screen, or how to use the Analysis and Reports screens to improve client outcomes.
   
   
3. Support What If. On the Support What If screen in the Cloud, you can now print the guideline as it would look for each scenario without having to swap columns.
   
   
4. Securities Gain. On the Securities Gain screen, changing the basis now updates the gain amount without having to refresh the screen. The Securities Gain screen helps you see how much “built in” gain there is on the securities in a client’s portfolio. This is important, because $10,000 of assets with substantial built-in gain is actually worth less on an after-tax basis than $10,000 of assets with no built-in gain.
   
5. Changed “Other What If” to “General What If.” We have changed the name of the menu option “Other What If” to “General What If.” This is on the Analysis tab. The name “General What If” is more descriptive.

State specific

California

• Judicial Council form FL-191. We had combined two sets of checkboxes in to one group. Now, they are separated into two groups.
  
  
• Judicial Council form FL-341(C). We added this form.

Florida

• Child support. In the step-down calculation, if alimony ends during the step-down period, that affects the calculation of child support. That effect is now being taken into account in calculating the step-down child support amount.

Illinois

• Order for Support . We have updated our Order for Support to match the current official form.

Michigan

• Support What If. The scenarios for Support What If now print the official Michigan guideline worksheet.

Minnesota

• Guideline worksheet. When one party pays health insurance and the other party pays dental insurance, the medical support obligation amount on line 9(g) for the noncustodial parent now matches the amount shown on the state’s online calculator.

447.07

For all Users

1. Notifications. Notifications that a client is ready to have you review their file now go to the person specified for notifications when the file is created. Previously, they went to the primary subscriber on the account.
2. Client name. In notifications about a client, we now use the client name consistently. Previously, we sometimes used the client’s email address.
3. Swap. The Swap function is now working in Child Support What If in the Cloud.
4. Trial edition. In the trial edition of the app, the “# days remaining in your trial” now shows the correct number.
5. “Renew” link. In the desktop software, the link to renew the software now goes to the correct page.

State Specific

California

• Credits. In calculating California state tax, we no longer apply non-refundable credits, such as the renter’s credit, to reduce the SDI tax. This will have a nominal impact on the child support calculation.
  
  
• Spousal support taxability. We added a note in the help at the checkbox for spousal support taxability to clarify that this checkbox will affect state taxes, but it will not affect child support.

New Jersey

• Low-income calculation. On the child support guideline worksheet for sole parenting, where both parties’ line 25 amounts are less than 150% of the poverty guideline for one person ($452) we are now putting the line 21 or line 24 amount on line 27. Previously, we were not calculating line 27 correctly in this situation.

447.06

For All Users

1. User Id. To change your credit card, we ask for your User Id. You can find your User Id at the very bottom of the screen in the Cloud software. But what if you are an associate in a firm, and the license is in the name of another attorney? We now show both your User Id and the User Id of the primary user. The latter is the one you need in order to change the credit card.
   
   
2. Footnotes. When expenses are shown by residence and the Budget Report option is selected to show only one party’s information, and you are viewing the second party entered, housing expense footnotes were being omitted from the Budget Report. This is fixed.
   

State Specific

California.

• State tax calculation. In calculating state tax, we now subtract the California Earned Income Credit and any other unused refundable credits from the SDI tax. This change resulted from a directive from the Judicial Council that we should be doing this. The result is to make taxes lower for individuals who receive the Earned Income Credit, which makes their Net Disposable Income slightly higher. This could increase their contribution to a child’s support.

Florida

• Arrears rates. We have updated the arrears rates charged on child support for the new rates effective as of April 1, 2025.
  
• Assets on Financial Affidavit. From older files, if an asset had an investment type that is no longer shown, the asset was not appearing on the data entry screen in the “for the affidavit” views. Now, assets with an obsolete investment type are appearing on the data entry screen in all views.

Illinois

• Real estate expenses. You now have the option to omit expenses from a real estate property on the Financial Affidavit. The expenses would still carry to the budget report and cash flow projections. They would simply not appear on the Financial Affidavit. You find this option in a checkbox in the “more info” screen for the asset, in the section on fields specifically for the Financial Affidavit and at the bottom of the section for real estate expenses.

New York

• Tuition expenses. The tuition expense lines were not carrying designations such as “Unknown” or “TBD” to the Net Worth Statement. These designations are now carrying.
  
• “Rental property” designation. On the more info screen for real estate properties, there was a checkbox to designate the property as a rental property. This checkbox is obsolete, and we have removed it.

Ohio

• Health Insurance Affidavit. On the Health Insurance Affidavit, if the first party was male, the parties’ names were reversed. This is fixed.

447.05

For all users

1. Arrears. We have updated state-specific arrears interest rates.
   
2. Corrupted files. We have continued to improve the software’s ability to load and work with files that contain assets where the data has become corrupted. Now you are able to change the order of the way assets are listed in such many files.
   
3. Sample file. The Sample File has been updated to 2025.

State Specific

California

• Judicial Council Forms. Updated FW-001

Illinois

• 2025 Tables. We have updated the gross-to-net and basic obligations tables for 2025.

Massachusetts

• Payroll deductions. Write-in payroll deductions were being doubled for purposes of the Support Impact report. They are now being accounted for correctly.

New York

• Automobile expenses. “Other” automobile expenses were being omitted from the Budget Report if you were entering automobiles one at a time. Now, all “other” automobile expenses will carry to the Budget Report.

447.04

For all users

1. Increased stability. We received a couple of reports of users being logged out of specific files. We fixed the issue that was causing that for those users. This event is rare, and it should be even more rare now.
   
2. Help button at checkbox. In a few locations, the help windows on the same line as a checkbox were being scrolled away before they could be read. We have fixed that.

State Specific

California

• Judicial Council Form – update CIV-110.
• Judicial Council Form – update FL-334.
• Judicial Council Form – update CLETS-001.
• Judicial Council Form – update FL-320-INFO.
• Judicial Council Form – update FL-320.
• Judicial Council Form – update MIL-100.

Ohio

• The length of the name fields became shorter when we made some header changes. We restored the name fields to their original length.

Oregon

• As an artifact of a recent update, child groceries had been moved to the “Personal” section on the Budget Report. It is now reinstated as a “Child” expense.

447.03

For All Users

1. Access to files. Previously, if you closed a browser tab in which you were using Family Law Software, and then opened another one, the software would think you were still working in the previous (now closed) tab. To prevent collisions, it would lock you out of the file for ten minutes. Now, the software knows that you closed the previous tab, and it lets you right in to the file you were working on.
   
2. Speedier refresh. When you click one checkbox in a pair, the other de-selects. When you enter a number of overnights for one parent, the other parent’s overnights update to match the remainder of the year. Recently, this refresh had slowed down. We have found and fixed the issue, and refresh has returned to normal.
   
3. Client files. We have continued fixing small things relating to creating and sharing client files. We worked on improving situations where paralegals are creating new files and on situations where file access is removed or switched to another person.
   
4. Monthly rate updates. We updated the default mortgage interest rate and default interest rate for defined benefit pensions. These rates are used if you do not enter actual rates for mortgage interest and pension discount rates, respectively.
   
5. Annual update of poverty guidelines. The federal poverty guidelines are used in several places in the software, typically to help set the “self support reserve” for states’ child support guidelines. These are updated annually. We made the updates for 2025.
   
6. Multiple states. We updated the help text that appears when you are entering the state where the party lives, to explain what to do in situations where a party pays tax in two states. (Typically, you enter the state of primary residence, and there is nothing else to do.)

State Specific

California

• Judicial Council Form MC-050 – Substitution of Attorney – Civil (Without Court Order). The case name and number were not carrying to the form. That is now fixed.

Connecticut

• Cell phone. It is now the case that if the client has a cell phone but not a landline, that the cell phone number will carry to the Affidavit.

Florida

• Mortgage “TBD.” If you enter special text such as “TBD” for mortgage payments, this special text now carries to the Affidavit.

Michigan

• Minimum Wage. The minimum wage is the default hourly payment amount if you choose to enter wages on an hourly basis. We have updated the Michigan minimum wage to the February 2025 level.

New Jersey

• Client data entry. We have added the phone number as a field for clients to enter in the client data entry.