Once a support order has been established and either party wants to modify that support order, it is called a modification. The court will not modify an order unless there is a change of circumstance which indicates why the order should be modified. Although there is no specific guideline to percentage of change, in most cases, if the child support is not going to change more then 10 percent, it may not be deemed a substantial change of circumstance. Furthermore, with modification of support, the first step is to determine whether or not the support would change, and if it is positive or negative. Therefore, discovery needs to be commenced to determine what the other party actually earns and other factors to determine which way support would be modified. Based on that analysis, and only after that analysis, can an individual determine whether or not to modify support.

Modification of spousal support is similar to modification of child support; however, there are additional elements and factors that must be considered. The goal of the legislature was for spousal support to be for the purpose to help a spouse become self-supportive. Therefore, spousal support is somewhat based on personal needs, whereas child support is based on the established legislative guideline.

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