Spousal support, a phrase that is interchangeable with the term ‘alimony,’ is a monthly payment made from one spouse to the other after divorce. The purpose of spousal support/alimony is to ensure that the supported spouse may maintain the standard of living that they may have grown accustomed to during marriage. While tabloids and television may portray spousal support as a vengeful tool used by a spiteful spouse, its proper use is to help spouses entering the workforce after a lengthy period of time fulfill their living expenses until they attain a sustainable income.
While spousal support is meant to assist the spouse with lower income potential, there are ways that it can be abused. There is also the false belief that support is permanent. If you’re facing a divorce that will include spousal support payments, you should, at the very least, have knowledge of the issues that will be the most important in determining the amount and duration of support that you will pay or receive.
While you should contact an experienced California Divorce Attorney to get all of your questions answered properly and in a timely fashion, we would like to briefly inform you of some issues the courts will look at when determining spousal support. in an effort to ensure that you get the support you deserve and/or also that you do not get taken advantage of.
Issues Taken Into Account When Figuring The Amount Of Spousal Support
There are certain issues the court will look at when determining the amount and duration of spousal support/alimony that will be paid in the state of California. Such as:
- Respective income of the parties
- Relative education levels
- Relative health
- Standard of living of the parties
- Duration of marriage
- Retirement benefits
- Other factors the court deems relevant
For an estimated idea of what spousal support payments would be in your situation, have a look at our child and spousal support calculator.
Determining The Length Of Spousal Support In California
While the amount being paid is a major concern that relies heavily on the amount of income made between the two parties, the most impactful issue on the length of time spousal support will provided in the state of California is the length of the marriage. Any marriage lasting less than ten years is considered short term and there is a fixed term.
Marriages lasting ten years or longer are governed differently and are set up for an unspecified amount of time. Here’s a short breakdown of how this works:
- Marriages that last less than ten years, alimony will be paid for half of the length of time. Meaning that if a marriage lasted six years, support will be provided for 3 years.
- Long term marriages, more than ten years, provided the supporting spouse can continue to pay, the supported spouse will receive alimony as long as it is necessary.
Marriages Lasting Longer Than 10 Years
One thing you will notice is that for marriages lasting more than ten years, there isn’t a finite length of time for spousal support. This is simply because the courts do not have a metric in place to determine the length of time that it will take for the supported spouse to attain a sustainable income. This, however, does not mean that the courts favor the spouse receiving support permanently.
While California may have once been in favor of “permanent” support, that has changed in recent years. The citation below supports this idea:
As recognized by our Supreme Court the public policy of this state has progressed from one which “entitled some women to lifelong alimony as a condition of the marital contract of support to one that entitles either spouse to post-dissolution support for only so long as is necessary to become self-supporting.” In re Marriage of Schmir (2005) 134 CA4 432.
Modifying Spousal Support
With the courts unable to provide a fixed amount of time for spousal support, termination and/or modification of it is left up to the supporting spouse to prove that the supported spouse no longer needs to rely on the initial amount of support agreed upon immediately following the divorce.
To follow through with a motion to modify support, the supporting spouse, along with an attorney, should document how much the supported spouse has done to become self sustainable. After this information is collected, the attorney will take the case to court to ask for a reduction if the supported spouse’s income has grown or is cohabitating with someone else. If the supported spouse has made little to no movement towards attaining self sustainability, the attorney will request a vocational exam to test their ability to work.
Have An Experienced Attorney Inform And Guide You
Experienced attorneys know what kind of an impact spousal support can have on both parties. They’re also aware of the ways that it can be abused as well as all of the intricacies that go into modifying or terminating it when necessary. With matters such as spousal support, where you could end up paying a lot more money than you need to if the situation is handled improperly, let the professional Family Law Attorneys from Bohm Wildish make sure that you get the help and information you deserve.