Wisconsin family-court cost model
What Costs More: Raising a Child or Fighting Over the Child?
A parent-child relationship cannot be reduced to dollars. Comparing the direct cost of childhood with the financial consequences of litigation does, however, show how quickly conflict can consume money otherwise available for a child’s care and future. This page leads with the Comanor, Sarro, and Rogers monetary-cost model, then contrasts it with the USDA expenditure benchmark.
How to read the numbers
- Published figure means the number comes directly from the linked government, court, county, or research source.
- Modeled arithmetic means BMD applied transparent math to a published figure or to the assumed $400-per-hour combined attorney rate. The result is not a national average, fee quote, or prediction for a particular case.
- Attorney time is shown as combined time for both parents. Actual rates, staffing, billing increments, case needs, and responsibility for fees vary.
- This page is educational information, not legal or financial advice.
Featured child-cost methodology
The Comanor monetary-cost model belongs in the guideline review
In The Monetary Cost of Raising Children, William S. Comanor, Mark Sarro, and R. Mark Rogers compare expenditures by households with children against substantially similar households without children. They use Consumer Expenditure Survey data but reject both income-equivalence methods and USDA-style allocation of shared household spending. Their estimates are materially lower, and the authors argue that existing child-support award structures should be re-evaluated.
| Paper’s income group | Average household income | Comanor monetary cost | USDA comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | $36,726 | $3,421 | $10,402 |
| Middle | $76,307 | $4,749 | $14,479 |
| High | $168,221 | $11,138 | $24,715 |
These are the paper’s June 2011-dollar estimates for one child, not current Wisconsin guideline amounts. For comparability, its Table 10 excludes health care; the Comanor estimates also use the authors’ stated statistical threshold. They should not be combined with the USDA lifetime figure below as though both measured the same concept.
What federal law requires states to review
42 U.S.C. § 667(opens in a new tab) requires each state to review its child-support guidelines at least once every four years. 45 CFR 302.56(opens in a new tab) requires that review to consider economic data on the cost of raising children, labor-market data, guideline application and deviation data, and public input. It does not require annual guideline changes or prescribe the Comanor, USDA, or any other single economic model.
A separate provision, 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(10)(opens in a new tab), provides a three-year review cycle for certain individual IV-D support orders. That order-review cycle is distinct from the statewide guideline review.
Where the Comanor model fits: the federal sources do not name or require this paper. It is relevant economic evidence because it uses Consumer Expenditure Survey data and directly challenges USDA-style allocation and income-equivalence methods. A transparent guideline review can identify whether it considered this competing model and explain why a methodology was accepted or rejected. The methodological boundary matters: the model measures incremental monetary outlays and does not attempt to price unpaid parental care, lost opportunities, or the full economic and human value of raising a child. Critics of a marginal-cost approach may reasonably prefer broader income-equivalence or expenditure-share measures. BMD brings the report forward so reviewers can compare those choices openly rather than treating the USDA allocation as the only available model.
The USDA expenditure benchmark
The most widely cited federal benchmark remains the USDA’s Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015(opens in a new tab). It estimated that a middle-income married-couple household with two children would spend $233,610 per child from birth through age 17, in 2015 dollars. Annual expenditures generally ranged from $12,350 to $13,900, depending on age.
USDA spending shares
| Category | Share |
|---|---|
| Housing | 29% |
| Food | 18% |
| Child care and education | 16% |
| Transportation | 15% |
| Health care | 9% |
| Miscellaneous | 7% |
| Clothing | 6% |
Modeled arithmetic
The only-child adjustment
USDA found that a married-couple household with one child spent about 27% more per child than the two-child household used for the headline estimate.
$233,610 × 1.27 = $296,685
This applies USDA’s adjustment mechanically; it is not a new survey result.
USDA cautioned that there is no universal cost: spending varies with income, region, family composition, and number of children. Its estimate also excludes college and expenses after age 17; prenatal, fertility, birth, and adoption expenses; public education and other government spending; support from people outside the household; unpaid parental time; and foregone earnings or career opportunities.
- Published projection
- $310,605
Brookings’ projected stream of expenditures through age 17 for a middle-income family with two children and a child born in 2015, after assuming elevated future inflation.
- Modeled arithmetic
- $329,152
USDA’s $233,610 converted from 2015 dollars to constant June 2026 purchasing power using CPI-U 237.017 and 333.952.
- Modeled arithmetic
- $418,023
The CPI conversion above with USDA’s 27% only-child adjustment applied.
Brookings’ $310,605 is a projected series of nominal annual expenses, not a claim that every family writes one check. The CPI figures are inflation-equivalent benchmarks, not predictions of future cash expenditures.
Federal review cycle and Wisconsin’s current process
Wisconsin completed its most recent federally required guideline review in 2025. The state’s published report(opens in a new tab) addresses cost-of-children economic data, labor-market data, and case-file data. The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families(opens in a new tab) identifies December 8, 2029, as the next quadrennial-review deadline. Neither the governing federal provisions nor Wisconsin’s current review materials identify the Comanor model as a required method.
Wisconsin’s standard is fundamentally income based. The Department of Children and Families(opens in a new tab) explains that the calculation considers parental income or earning capacity, placement time, and support obligations for other children. A court may depart from the guideline when applying it would be unfair to a parent or child. The guideline amount and a child’s incremental household cost are related concepts, but they are not necessarily the same number.
For parents who were never married, custody, placement, and support are ordinarily decided in a paternity or other family-court action, not a divorce. In Wisconsin, legal custody describes authority over major decisions; physical placement describes time in a parent’s care, when that parent makes routine daily decisions.
The methodological disagreement
BMD’s research library includes two works that approach child-rearing cost from different angles:
These works advance a debated position. Comanor, Sarro, and Rogers contend that common methods overstate incremental monetary costs. Other guideline economists use income-equivalence or expenditure-share methods and reach higher results. Estimates are sensitive to how housing, transportation, medical costs, and shared household expenses are allocated. BMD presents the disagreement; it does not endorse either methodology.
The $400-per-hour model
The table uses a transparent assumed rate of $400 per combined attorney hour. It is not represented as a national average or as the rate in any individual case.
| Combined attorney time | Modeled legal fees |
|---|---|
| 10 hours | $4,000 |
| 25 hours | $10,000 |
| 50 hours | $20,000 |
| 125 hours | $50,000 |
| 250 hours | $100,000 |
| 500 hours | $200,000 |
| 750 hours | $300,000 |
Modeled arithmetic
At $400 per hour, a six-minute billing increment is $40, and 15 minutes is $100. Billing practices vary by attorney.
A case does not require 250 courtroom hours to produce $100,000 in combined fees. Billable work can include reviewing messages and records; client calls and email; affidavits and motions; discovery and document production; witness and exhibit preparation; temporary-order negotiations; hearings and status conferences; communications with a guardian ad litem; expert consultations; trial preparation; written arguments; enforcement; and appeals.
A National Center for State Courts process evaluation reported a mean of about 221 days and a median of about 131 days for domestic-relations cases in its Landscape dataset. That limited court dataset is not a national estimate for contested custody cases; it only illustrates that family cases often unfold over months.
Modeled pathways at $400 per hour
Planning scenarios only. They are not published averages, promises, or fee quotes.
Direct out-of-court stipulation
Parents agree on the schedule and major terms; counsel primarily drafts, reviews, revises, and files the agreement.
- 10 combined hours: $4,000
- 25 combined hours: $10,000
- 30 combined hours: $12,000
Mediation-supported agreement
Parents mediate and each obtains some independent legal review. Private mediator and filing charges are additional.
- 20 combined hours: $8,000
- 40 combined hours: $16,000
- 60 combined hours: $24,000
Contested litigation
Discovery, motion practice, hearings, professional involvement, trial preparation, and possible post-judgment work.
- 125 combined hours: $50,000
- 250 combined hours: $100,000
- 500 combined hours: $200,000
- 750 combined hours: $300,000
Wisconsin’s current statewide fee table lists no motion fee for a revision by stipulation, a $30 motion fee for revising support, a $50 motion fee for revising legal custody or placement, and a $200 or local mediation fee after a first session that is free under the statute. Attorney, service, initial-case, e-filing, and document-preparation costs may still apply.
Wisconsin court and professional costs
The statewide court schedule(opens in a new tab) lists a private-party paternity filing fee of $184.50, or $194.50 when support is requested. It separately lists $200 or a local fee for mediation and $300 or a local fee for a custody/placement study. Electronic filing can add $35 per case per party unless an exemption applies.
Local requirements can be larger. Portage County’s April 2026 instructions direct both parties to comply with an order that includes a $100 mediation fee before appointment of a mediator, and provide up to two sessions totaling three hours. If mediation is unsuccessful, the court may hold a status conference and consider appointing a guardian ad litem.
These costs are separate from attorney fees and can include evaluators, experts, transcripts, service, travel, missed work, and child care during proceedings. The court or applicable order determines who ultimately bears a charge.
Litigation spending expressed as years of child-rearing cost
Brookings’ $310,605 projection averages about $17,256 per year across the 18 years from birth through age 17. Actual spending is not uniform by year, but the average permits a transparent opportunity-cost comparison.
| Money spent on litigation | Equivalent average child-rearing expenditure |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | About 7 months |
| $16,000 | About 11 months |
| $50,000 | About 2.9 years |
| $100,000 | About 5.8 years |
| $200,000 | About 11.6 years |
| $300,000 | About 17.4 years |
Modeled arithmetic
$100,000 is about 32% of Brookings’ projection; $200,000 is about 64%; and $300,000 is nearly the entire projection. Against the older USDA figure, $200,000 is about 86%.
Litigation also has a multiplication effect: one filing generally requires the other parent to investigate, respond, prepare evidence, and appear. A disputed issue that costs one parent money may generate comparable defensive expense before GAL, evaluation, or court costs are added. That is a planning inference, not a universal one-to-one rule.
The proportionality question
The issue is not whether a parent should abandon a legitimate effort to protect a child or obtain meaningful parenting time. Safety concerns, concealment, repeated order violations, or refusal to permit a parent-child relationship can require judicial intervention. Mediation and voluntary stipulation are not appropriate in every case.
The question is whether the process remains proportionate to the dispute. Money consumed by conflict is unavailable for stable housing in both homes, food, clothing, health care, child care, transportation, education, emergency savings, counseling, activities, and the child’s future.
USDA and Brookings place direct childhood expenditures in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the page’s assumed rate, 250 combined hours produces $100,000 in fees and 500 hours produces $200,000. Where a disagreement concerns schedules, communication, ordinary parenting differences, or incremental placement changes, that opportunity cost deserves explicit consideration alongside the legal merits.
Sources
Primary and institutional sources used for the published figures and legal framework.
- USDA, Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015 (full report)(opens in a new tab)
- USDA Food and Nutrition Service report landing page(opens in a new tab)
- Brookings, inflation-adjusted projection for a child born in 2015(opens in a new tab)
- BLS, June 2026 Consumer Price Index release(opens in a new tab)
- BLS, CPI math and annual-average index reference(opens in a new tab)
- 45 CFR 302.56, federal child-support guideline review requirements(opens in a new tab)
- Wisconsin DCF, child-support guidelines(opens in a new tab)
- Wisconsin Court System, current circuit court fee table(opens in a new tab)
- Portage County, Mediation Information Sheet (updated April 2026)(opens in a new tab)
- State Bar of Wisconsin, custody and placement definitions(opens in a new tab)
- NCSC, Family Justice Initiative process evaluation(opens in a new tab)
- Emerald Publishing, The Monetary Cost of Raising Children (DOI record)(opens in a new tab)
- 42 U.S.C. § 667, state child-support guidelines and four-year review(opens in a new tab)
- 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(10), review of individual child-support orders(opens in a new tab)
- Wisconsin DCF, 2025 Child Support Guidelines Review report(opens in a new tab)
- Wisconsin DCF, Child Support Guidelines Review Advisory Committee(opens in a new tab)
Educational information only
Costs and procedures vary by county, professional, case, and date. Confirm current fees with the clerk and read the orders that govern your case. BMD does not provide legal or financial advice.