Rule 4-202 Temporary and permanent support.

These child support guidelines apply whether a court is setting up support for right now or making a longer-term decision. In other words, judges use the same basic method to calculate support whether it's meant to be a short-term arrangement while the case is ongoing or a final support order.

This means parents can expect the same rules and calculations to apply at both stages of a case. A temporary support order that gets put in place early on will be calculated the same way as the final support order that comes later. The guidelines don't change based on whether the support is meant to last a few months or for years.