David, J.
Teresa Bogner (Mother) and James Bogner (Father) were married and have one child, H.B. In 2007, when H.B. was just over two years old, the marriage was dissolved. Father was originally ordered to pay $162 per week in child support. In 2008, Father sought to modify his support obligation. The parties agreed under the Indiana Child Support Guidelines that Father’s support obligation would be reduced to $135 per week. In 2013, Father again filed to modify his support obligation given an increased number of overnights Father was having with H.B. and a decrease in childcare costs. Under the Guidelines, the applicable parenting time credit decreased Father’s support obligation to $59 per week. Mother sought a deviation from the amount recommended by the Guidelines. Mother argues that $59 per week is insufficient for her to continue supporting H.B. considering all of the attendant costs she incurs as the custodial parent.
A hearing was held, and the parties agreed to proceed in a summary fashion. After arguments of counsel, the Court entered findings that the support provided under the Guidelines was unreasonable and created a hardship on Mother. As such, the Court deviated upward from the recommended support, but still reduced Father’s previous support obligation to $105 per week. Upon Mother’s request, the Court also ordered that Mother would claim H.B. each year for the child dependency tax exemption, instead of alternating years with Father. Father appealed the trial court’s ordered modification. Father argued that the trial court erred in deviating from the Guidelines regarding the amount of weekly support and in awarding the yearly state and federal tax exemptions to Mother.
Under the Guidelines, after considering certain factors, if “the court finds that the Guideline amount is unjust or inappropriate in a particular case, the court may state a factual basis for the deviation and proceed to enter a support amount that is deemed appropriate.” Ind. Child Supp. G. 3(F)(2). The trial court stated on the record its finding that the support provided by the Guidelines was unreasonable, and included the basis for deviating from the Guideline amount.
This Court has continually advised trial courts that the Guidelines should not be treated as immutable, black letter law. Rather, some situations require greater flexibility. To the extent that Father challenges the form of the summary proceedings, that argument is waived because no objection to the nature of the proceedings was made at the time of the hearing. Moreover, the trial court did not clearly err during the summary proceeding when it relied upon the arguments of counsel and limited informal documentary evidence in reaching its findings and conclusions. As such, we affirm the trial court’s child support modification order.
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…Although differing in certain respects from Louisiana and New Jersey, trial courts throughout Indiana also utilize summary proceedings to accomplish the same efficiency goals. A variety of practices may be appropriate when conducting a summary proceeding, especially given the nature of the dispute. However, going forward, the collective opinion of this Court is that certain best practices would be prudent when a trial court is conducting summary proceedings. These procedures would include establishing on the record: 1) affirmative agreement from the attorneys that proceedings will be conducted summarily, for those represented by counsel; 2) affirmative agreement by both clients or unrepresented litigants to summary proceedings; 3) opportunity for both parties to add any other relevant information regarding the issues in dispute before the summary proceeding is concluded or to affirm the arguments made by counsel; and 4) an advisement in advance of the hearing that either party is free to object to the form of the proceeding and request a full evidentiary hearing, upon which formal rules of evidence and procedure will be observed.
Despite the guidance we offer for the future, we conclude that under the circumstances in the current case, a summary proceeding was properly conducted. Both parties were represented by counsel and stated their agreement on the record that the hearing would be carried out in summary fashion. Accordingly, we assess whether the trial court clearly erred in entering the child support modification order in the context of a summary proceeding.
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To summarize, for both of the ordered modifications, the trial court accepted informal exhibits and heard arguments on disputed issues. The trial court then acted accordingly by entering written findings based upon the information provided by the parties and explaining the basis for its deviation from the Guidelines. Once again, formal findings of fact and conclusions of law are not required by the Child Support Guidelines. The judge need only articulate his or her reasoning. This is exactly what the trial court did in this case. Thus, the modifications were not clear error.
Conclusion
Father waived his challenge to the form of the summary proceeding when he failed to make a contemporaneous objection to that procedure. Despite Father’s waiver, the trial court properly conducted a summary proceeding under the agreement of both parties, and the court was permitted to rely upon the arguments of counsel and limited informal documentary evidence when it entered its findings. The trial court did not commit clear error when it deviated from the Indiana Child Support Guidelines by not granting Father the full parenting time credit and permitted Mother to claim H.B. each year for the federal and state dependency tax exemption. We affirm the trial court’s child support modification order.
Rush, C.J., Dickson, Rucker, and Massa, J.J., concur.