How to modify child support or alimony in Georgia

Sources last checked: 3 November 2026. Updated 3 November 2026: we read the full text of section 19-6-19 and added its cohabitation, attorney’s fees and temporary-modification rules. Information only, not legal advice. The Cusp is not a law firm.

Georgia divorce kit How child support is calculated Alimony in Georgia Legal aid in Georgia

The short version

In Georgia, child support and alimony are both changed by filing a petition in court, and both petitions follow the same procedure rules as a divorce case. Child support modification is governed by subsection (k) of Code section 19-6-15. Alimony modification is governed by Code section 19-6-19. We did not find a single statewide petition form for either. The one court form we could read is a county form: the Fulton Family Law Information Center’s Petition for Modification of Child Support/Alimony (Rev. Feb. 2016), which is written for Fulton County. For child support only, the state Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) will also review an order if you send it a Request for Review of Child Support Order (Web RAF, revised 02/07/2025).

What the petition can ask for

Child support: section 19-6-15(k)(1) says a parent may not petition to modify unless there is a “substantial change in either parent’s income and financial status” or in the needs of the child. The court may modify if the change is proven and the modification is “in the child’s best interest” (details below).
Alimony: section 19-6-19(a) says a permanent alimony judgment “rendered on or after July 1, 1977” may be revised on a petition “showing a change in the income and financial status of either former spouse”. Either former spouse can file. The rest of the section is covered below.
Not for DCSS: the Request for Review form says “DCSS only reviews child support and health insurance”. It does not review alimony.

What else you file

Georgia has no statewide list that we could find. The only list we read is the Fulton County packet, whose instructions are marked rev. August 2015 and are written for orders from a Georgia Superior Court where the other party lives in Fulton County or has agreed to Fulton. Other counties may ask for different papers, so ask your clerk.

Petition for Modification of Child Support/Alimony (Fulton form, Rev. Feb. 2016), with a copy of the original order attached.
Verification, which the instructions say must be signed in front of a notary public.
Summons and a Sheriff’s Entry of Service, or an Acknowledgment of Service if the other party has signed one.
Domestic Relations Case Filing Information form, Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit and Automatic Domestic Standing Order.
Poverty Affidavit, only if you cannot afford the filing and service fees.
Child support worksheet: subsection (m) of section 19-6-15 requires worksheets and schedules for calculating child support and says the Georgia Child Support Commission promulgates them. The Commission runs an online Child Support Calculator. The Fulton instructions predate the current calculator address, so use the Commission’s own page.

What the statutes say

Wording below is a plain-language summary of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated as we read it on 3 November 2026, with short quotations. Section 19-6-15 was read in full from the Child Support Commission’s copy, and the Act that rewrote it was checked on the General Assembly’s site. Section 19-6-19 was read in full, subsections (a) to (d), on 3 November 2026.

Child support, section 19-6-15(k)(1): no right to petition to modify, however long since the award, unless there is a “substantial change in either parent’s income and financial status” or in the needs of the child.
Child support, section 19-6-15(k)(2), two-year rule: neither parent may file a new petition to modify “within a period of two years” of the final order on that same parent’s previous petition. The exceptions are a noncustodial parent who did not use court-ordered parenting time, one who used more parenting time than ordered, or a motion based on an involuntary loss of income under subsection (j).
Involuntary loss of income, section 19-6-15(j): for a “loss of income of 25 percent or more” from causes such as job termination, a strike, a loss of health or incarceration, the support attributable to the lost income “shall not accrue from the date of the service of the petition for modification”, if the other parent is served. Under (j)(2) “the court shall make every effort to expedite hearing such action”.
Procedure, section 19-6-15(k)(4): the petition is filed under “the same rules of procedure applicable to divorce proceedings”. The court may allow a “temporary modification of a child support order pending the final trial”. A jury, if demanded, “shall only be responsible for determining a parent’s gross income and any deviations”. The court must enter a written order stating the basis for any modification.
Fees between the parties, section 19-6-15(k)(5): the court “may award attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses of litigation” to the prevailing party as the interests of justice may require.
Reviews by child support services, section 19-6-15(k)(3)(C): these are governed by Code section 19-11-12, and later changes to the basic child support obligation table are a “reason to request a review for modification from child support services” to the extent consistent with that section. We did not read section 19-11-12.
When section 19-6-15 took effect, SB 454 (2024): the Commission’s history line ends with SB 454. The General Assembly’s bill page lists it as Act 618, signed 6 May 2024, with an effective date of 1 July 2024. The Act’s own Section 2 says the new basic child support obligation table takes effect 1 July 2024, and that the low-income adjustment, its table and the parenting time adjustment provisions of subsection (g) become effective 1 January 2026. Section 2 does not name subsection (k). The wording of (k) in the Act as passed matches the Commission’s copy apart from the words visitation and parenting time. So the rules in (k) described above are not among the provisions that waited until 1 January 2026.
Later change, HB 1268 (2026): the General Assembly’s page lists this Code clean-up bill as Act 723, signed 12 May 2026, effective 1 July 2026. Its only entry for section 19-6-15 inserts a closing quotation mark in paragraph (a)(17). It does not mention subsection (k).
Alimony, section 19-6-19(a): a permanent alimony judgment “rendered on or after July 1, 1977” may be revised on a petition “showing a change in the income and financial status of either former spouse”. A petition is “filed and returnable under the same rules of procedure applicable to divorce proceedings”. Neither former spouse may file under this subsection “within a period of two years” of the final order on a previous petition by the same former spouse.
Alimony, the rest of section 19-6-19: a former spouse’s “voluntary cohabitation of such former spouse with a third party” in a “meretricious relationship” is a further ground to modify periodic permanent alimony, and the statute defines cohabitation as “dwelling together continuously and openly”. If the petitioner does not prevail on that ground, “the petitioner shall be liable for reasonable attorney’s fees” of the respondent. While a petition is pending, “the court in its discretion may allow, upon motion, the temporary modification” of the judgment, and it must weigh the “reasonable probability of the petitioner obtaining revision upon final trial”. In a modification case the court “may award attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses of litigation” to the prevailing party. The statute says the judge, or a jury if one is demanded, “may modify and revise the previous judgment”.

Notice, service and hearing

Where to file: the Fulton instructions cover orders from a Georgia Superior Court and ask whether the other party lives in Fulton County, lives elsewhere in Georgia, or lives in another state. Which court and county is right for your order is a question for the clerk or a lawyer.
Service: the Fulton form offers two choices: the other party signs an Acknowledgment of Service, or the sheriff serves the papers at a home or work address. If the other party lives outside Fulton County, the form says the sheriff in that county serves a second original.
Oath: the verification is signed only in front of a notary public.
E-filing: the instructions say to follow the Superior Court Clerk’s instructions for e-filing.
Hearing and order: see the procedure bullet above. The court hears evidence on the change in income, financial status or the child’s needs, and enters a written order.
Through DCSS instead (child support only): the Request for Review form goes to your local Child Support Services office. The DCSS page says a review “may take up to six months” to complete, that “Past-due support does not get modified”, and that DCSS “cannot address visitation and custody issues”. It says the DCSS attorney “does not represent either parent”. The form says that if the order is less than 36 months old you must show a substantial change in circumstances, and that legal documents are served personally by the sheriff or a process server unless you sign and return the attached Waiver of Personal Service. The form also says you keep the right to ask a court to modify the order on your own.

Before you file

Court staff cannot give legal advice. See legal aid in Georgia for free or low-cost help, or the Georgia divorce kit for the wider process.
Fee we can state: DCSS charges a “$100 non-refundable review application fee” to the person requesting a review, payable when the review is complete. Its page waives it for someone receiving TANF or Medicaid benefits or whose non-TANF gross income is “$1,000 or less per month”. The form instead says the fee is waived at “$1,261.50 or less per month”. We could not reconcile the two figures, so ask DCSS which applies.
This page does not state a court filing fee or service fee. The Fulton instructions say to “check with the Clerk to get fee information”.
Child support amounts follow the state guidelines. See how child support is calculated in Georgia and alimony in Georgia.
The DCSS form is dated 02/07/2025 and the Fulton petition is dated Feb. 2016. Check that you have the current version before you file.

What we could not confirm

Other alimony rules. Section 19-6-19 covers permanent alimony only. We did not read the sections on other kinds of alimony, on lump-sum alimony, or on what ends alimony at remarriage or death.
Which alimony judgments are covered. Subsection (a) as we read it refers to “permanent alimony”. We did not read how Georgia treats lump-sum or other types of alimony, or the effect of remarriage or death.
Whether any other 2025 or 2026 act changed section 19-6-15(k). The Commission’s copy says it is current through the 2025 Regular Session and its history line ends with SB 454 of 2024. On the General Assembly’s site we read SB 454 (Act 618) and HB 1268 (Act 723, 2026), described in the statutes list above. We then checked the final status of the other 2025–26 bills that cite this section (read 3 November 2026). None of them was enacted, and we found no other act that touches (k).
How far back an ordinary modification reaches. We read the date rule only for an involuntary loss of income under subsection (j).
A statewide form. We found none, but we did not read every page of the Georgia courts’ websites. The Fulton form is a county form from 2016, and its instructions are from 2015.
Filing and service fees for a court petition. No official source we read states an amount.
DCSS fee waiver threshold. The DCSS page and the DCSS form give different income figures, as described above.
Other rules. We did not read Code section 19-11-12, the rest of the child support guidelines, the pre-2007 phase-in rules in subsection (k)(3), or any county’s local rules and standing orders.

Spot something out of date? See our corrections or email hello@thecusp.app.