Spousal Support

Spousal support is court-ordered payments designed to ease the financial hardship of dependent spouses following a divorce. Many people commonly refer to it as alimony.

It usually factors into a divorce agreement when there’s a substantial gap between spouses' earnings or when one spouse has financial need.

Several factors contribute to determining spousal support. In some cases, payments are temporary. These are usually intended to help one spouse get back on their feet. Under other circumstances, however, spousal support payments continue indefinitely.

Courts make determinations regarding spousal support after considering many factors such as:

• the length of the marriage,
• the standard of living during the marriage,
• as well as the age,
• health,
• earning capacity and
• job histories of both individuals.

The issue of spousal support modification can have a profound impact on how they live day-to-day and plan for retirement. In many of our cases, we must negotiate or litigate to achieve a minimization or termination of this sometimes oppressive obligation in our client’s best interest.

California is a community property state, meaning it treats all assets earned or acquired during the marriage as belonging equally to both spouses.

After you divide debts and property, spousal support may come into play.

Spousal support is most common when one spouse has additional needs, or there’s an imbalance in the settlement.

If spousal support factors into your settlement, it will likely be one of your biggest post-divorce expenditures.

If each spouse can maintain a lifestyle similar to what it was during the marriage, the issue may not come up at all.

The general idea is for each party to depart on a relatively equal footing. When a substantial gap in earning potential exists, health issues impact employment, or other elements arise, it may.

The goal is for each party to maintain the lifestyle they had during the marriage; that’s the general target. When determining the amount, many things figure into the final number. As with many areas of divorce, how much weight each factor carries differs from case to case.

Among others, the court considers:

• The length of the marriage.
• Level of education.
• Job skills.
• The earning potential of both spouses.
• Age.
• Health concerns.
• The standard of living while married.
• Child-care responsibilities.
• Level of need.
• Ability to pay.

This is not a comprehensive list. Family Code §4320 lays this out in much more detail. Other scenarios may also figure into the decision. For example, if one party worked full-time to put the other through school. That often plays a role.

Regardless of how long a marriage lasted, California courts require parties seeking spousal support to show good-faith efforts to become self-sufficient.

If you can’t become self-sufficient, you have to provide evidence to justify these claims.

Just because it's called permanent doesn’t mean you can’t alter or end the payments. Either spouse can request modification or termination if their financial situation changes, such as losing a job.

If the recipient remarries or passes away, support payments should cease.

The original agreement can be modified if both spouses agree to the terms. Both sides must still enter into a written contract that explicitly states the new details, and a judge must approve it to make it official.

If you can’t reach an agreement, you may need to go to court.

The party who wants to modify the arrangement must file a motion to show that his or her financial circumstances have significantly changed since the original order.

The court, of course, requires evidence to back up these claims and will issue a ruling based on what it sees.

Spousal support forms just one piece of the larger divorce puzzle, but it’s an important one to consider. How it all shakes out in a particular case depends on the specific couple and their unique finances.