52 N.C. App. 203 - Falls v. Falls’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
78 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 78 later decisions — most recently March 2019 · most notably Pulliam v. Smith (1998), 136 N.C. App. 420 - Browning v. Helff (2000)
78 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 10 U.S.C. § 1401A · 22 U.S.C. § 1121 · 42 U.S.C. § 1758 · 42 U.S.C. § 1766 · 42 U.S.C. § 1772 · 42 U.S.C. § 415 (§ 215 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 5 U.S.C. § 8146A
Relies on Fuchs v. Fuchs · 10 N.C. App. 545 - In Re Custody of Stancil · Hudson v. Hudson · Holden v. Holden · Williams v. Williams
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 78 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[The trial court] has the opportunity to see the parties in person and to hear the witnesses, and [its] decision ought not be upset on appeal absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“an acceptable annual adjustment formula based on the percentage change in a generally accepted and accurate index of the cost of living should include, at a minimum: 1. Provisions focusing not only on the needs of the child, but also on the relative abilities of the . . . parent[s] to pay; 2. Provisions stating that if the non-custodial parent’s income decreases, or increases by a lesser percentage than the percentage change in the index, then the child support payments shall decrease or increase by a like or lesser percentage; 3. Provisions stating that if the parties are unable to determine or stipulate to the correct adjustment, either party may request that the court determine the same; and 4. Provisions allowing either party to petition the court for modification due to a substantial and continuing change of circumstance.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[F]or each child shall be increased for the succeeding 12 months by such amount, if any, as may be necessary to keep the level of the payments, during those succeeding 12 months at a consistent level by comparison of the United States Consumer Cost of Living Index for the month of September, 1980, for the same month of the year 1981 and each year thereafter ... it being the intent of the Court that said payments be increased annually, consistent with the increase of the cost of living, as reflected by the official statistics of the United States ....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.