Why would a Judge make a ruling for me to pay $4,500 over my income?

You need to obtain an attorney to review what's occurred and whether you can appeal. If you left your prior job voluntarily or were fired with just cause, the court can impute your prior income to you in setting support.

Without more facts there is no way to evaluate why the judge ruled as he did. One explanation may be in why you no longer have the job you once had. If it was a voluntary quit, he could impute income in establishing a fair and equitable amount of spousal support. You could ask the court for reconsideration or appeal the ruling.

The Judge may have based the decision on your prior Financial Affidavit. Did you file a current Financial Affidavit before your hearing? If not, I suggest you file a current Financial Affidavit and request an expedited hearing for reconsideration.

The figures that are stated in this question need a full review and discussion as to what was presented to the Judge and why a ruling like this was made. It seems that part of this may be due to some support arrears that the Judge wants to get caught up. Did you get an order following this hearing? It would be best to discuss and review all the information.

Today...right now...stop what you are doing and get to a family law attorney. Take all of your papers with you...the divorce, the orders of the court and everything from your recent court decree. Every minute that order goes without challenge you are running up a terrible bill. I bet you went to court without a lawyer. Don't make that mistake now.

Talk to an attorney. Obviously you didn't present your case properly so the judge didn't believe your income. The sooner you can change the order the better or you'll just fall farther and farther behind.

There are only two obvious reasons the judge would order you to pay more than you have in total income: either he believes you are lying about your real income or you failed to adequately show him the true facts. It seems highly unlikely the judge would have made his rulings without giving you some explanation so perhaps you need to reexamine the written order or get a transcript of the hearing where the rulings were announced. If you are certain he had all the correct financial information and yet still ruled that you had to pay more than your total income, your only potential remedy is to appeal his ruling to the appropriate appeals court. Because there are time deadlines for filing an appeal, you need to quickly consult an attorney in the city where the court is located to find out what your options are.

With that much at stake, surely you hired one. He knows your case, why it happened as it did, and if you have remedies. If you didn't have counsel, you made a very expensive mistake.