(WKBN) – A case decided by the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday took a look at how to determine child support for an unemployed parent in a divorce proceeding.

The case surrounds the divorce of a couple in Wood County. The husband lost his job in 2019 due to organizational restructuring, and he stated that the 2020 pandemic made the market “tight” and that finding a job in the same position and compensation would be difficult.

His wife said her soon-to-be ex-husband was a professional with education and experience and could find comparable employment and compensation. She wanted child support based on the husband’s potential income and the bonuses he had received over the past three years.

The domestic relations court agreed and determined the husband could pay child support at an amount similar to a calculation based on his eliminated position.

The crux of the case rested on whether the husband was voluntarily unemployed/ underemployed or involuntarily.

The husband appealed the ruling, which was affirmed by the Sixth District Court of Appeals. The Court determined that state law did not require the court to expressly state that it found the husband was voluntarily unemployed and that the court’s efforts to calculate a potential income “implied” it found he was voluntarily unemployed. The Supreme Court agreed to resolve the conflict.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a domestic relations court must expressly find that a parent is voluntarily unemployed before calculating a child support order based on estimated potential future income and that the Wood County Domestic Relations Court skipped that step.

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court to determine whether the husband was voluntarily unemployed and to conduct further proceedings based on the finding on that issue.