Berge v. Berge’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under N.D. Admin. Code § 75-02[-]04.1-02(10), “[e]ach child support order must include a statement of the net income of the obligor used to determine the child support obligation, and how that net income was determined.” Because a proper finding of net income is essential to determine the correct amount of child support under the child support guidelines, we have said that, as a matter of law, a trial court must clearly set forth how it arrived at the amount of income and the level of support. See, e.g., Bladow [v. Bladow], 2005 ND 142, ¶ 19 , 701 N.W.2d 903 ; Olson v. Olson, 2002 ND 30, ¶ 12 , 639 N.W.2d 701 ; Heinz v. Heinz, 2001 ND 147, ¶ 17 , 632 N.W.2d 443 ; Lauer v. Lauer, 2000 ND 82, ¶ 3 , 609 N.W.2d 450 ; Buchholz v. Buchholz, 1999 ND 36, ¶ 12 , 590 N.W.2d 215 ; Berg v. Ullman ex rel. Ullman, 1998 ND 74, ¶ 18 , 576 N.W.2d 218 . When a trial court does not clearly state how it calculated the amount of child support, this Court will reverse and remand for an explanation even if the record contains adequate evidence for the trial court to make a precise finding. See Buchholz, at ¶¶ 12, 17; Wolf v. Wolf, 557 N.W.2d 742, 744 (N.D.1996); see also Heley v. Heley, 506 N.W.2d 715 , 721 (N.D.1993) (“A mere recitation that the guidelines have been considered in arriving at the amount of a child support obligation is insufficient to show compliance with the guidelines”); Spilovoy v. Spilovoy, 488 N.W.2d 873, 877 (N.D.1992) (same).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gunia v. Gunia · Clark v. Clark

2. ““Self-employment activities may experience significant changes in production and income over time. To the extent that information is reasonably available, the average of the most recent five years of each self-employment activity, if undertaken on a substantially similar scale, must be used to determine self-employment income. When self-employment activity has not been operated on a substantially similar scale for five years, a shorter period may be used.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Langwald v. Langwald · Shae v. Shae

3. “very broad and is intended to include any form of payment to an obligor, regardless of source, which is not specifically excluded under the guidelines.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Knudson v. Knudson