Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 4 Sec. 463

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Magistrate: shall mean any Supreme Court Justice, Superior judge, District judge, or Probate judge. See
  • Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.

§ 463. Jurisdiction of Family Division of Superior Court over child support

Upon motion of either party, upon motion of the magistrate, or upon the court’s own motion, a judge of the Family Division of the Superior Court may hear and determine the issue of child support, provided there is a prior existing support order in effect or an interim or temporary order and the court finds one of the following:

(1) The support matter is so intrinsically tied to an action that must be heard by a judge that hearing before a magistrate would unduly delay the proceedings.

(2) The identity of the parties, issues, and evidence are so similar in nature that consolidation with an already scheduled matter would in fact expedite resolution of the support issue.

(3) A material legal issue must be resolved for which there is no legal precedent.

(4) Such good and substantial cause as the court may find, consistent with the principle that support cases shall be heard in a timely manner. (Added 1989, No. 221 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1990; amended 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 31.)