Michael Strahan Child Support Judgment Overturned on Appeal

Now-retired New York Giant great Michael Strahan had his child support obligation for his young twin daughters overturned on appeal in New Jersey this morning. The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division issued a 23 page opinion regarding child support, disability insurance, legal fees and court bias. The full appellate decision can be found at the court’s website.

As we reported back in April, Strahan and his ex-wife Jean were locked in a vicious battle over the division of their assets pursuant to a prenuptial agreement. Strahan also complained that his child support obligation of over $18,000 a month was not warranted under New Jersey law.

Since then, according to the court’s opinion, the parties were able to work out an agreement which settled the property division issues. That basically left the child support judgment, which Strahan felt was too high in light of (1) the amount of money that Jean received in the divorce settlement ($10.5 million), (2) the failure of the lower court to differentiate between the reasonable needs of the children and the expenses of their mother and (3) the failure of the lower court to impute income to Jean in making its calculation.

The appeals court agreed with Strahan. It remanded the case back to the trial court to reconsider the child support award with several specific considerations related to the three issues outlined above. The appeals court also agreed with Strahan that the trial court overstepped its bounds in ordering him to obtain a $7.5 million disability insurance policy to secure his child support obligation in the event that his professional football career was ended due to disability. Ultimately, the issue was moot anyway because Strahan retired in the off-season.

Finally, the appellate court ordered that Strahan should not be responsible for Jean’s legal and other expert fees accrued after the divorce judgment and that the child support remand could be heard by the original judge as there was no evidence of unfair bias on the judge’s part.

So, Strahan is back to court on the child support issue unless he and Jean can reach an agreement in the meantime. We’ll keep you updated!