Richards v. Ryan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The criteria for determining a child support award, including retroactive child support, are the child's needs and the ability of each parent to pay. It is commendable that [the father] himself initiated the proceedings and admitted paternity. Furthermore, at the hearing, he acknowledged that the child has financial needs that have existed since birth, and he admitted a duty to support the child. . . . . [The father's] excuse for not paying further child support was [the mother's] denial of access to the child. We note that in the different context of court-ordered child support and visitation, the Florida Legislature has declared that visitation privileges and the obligation to provide child support are unrelated matters, even in the context of a custodial parent's refusal to honor the non-custodial parent's visitation rights. Accordingly, the inability to exercise visitation rights does not relieve the non-custodial parent from the obligation to pay child support.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 835 So. 2d 1198 - Bassett v. Saunders