When two people form a legal union called marriage, they usually take on various roles in that union. One person may work and one may stay at home and take care of children. One spouse will enjoy the financial independence of being able to exit the marriage at any time, without financial catastrophe striking, while the dependent spouse puts their literal financial life into the hands of the primary breadwinner. Many people mistakenly believe that only spouses who didn't work during the marriage are qualified for alimony - or spousal support - payment. Wrong! Even if you worked during the marriage, if you weren't the primary earner and now would face difficulty during a divorce in taking care of yourself, you may still be able to get some form of alimony payment.
While the instances of alimony have declined over the years, as both spouses have been forced to work outside the home, there is still room for alimony in many divorce agreements.
Calculating Alimony Payments
A handy alimony calculator sheds a lot of light into what goes into calculating alimony payments. As you'll see, it begins by asking for the duration of the marriage. This will factor into the payment determinations. The longer you are married, the more income and resources you have forfeited over the years to the marriage. This is a very important number in alimony determinations.
One spouse is called the paying spouse while the other is called the dependent spouse. This is how spousal support is viewed in the eyes of the law. One spouse was a breadwinner and one might have been dependent on that "paying spouse" for most of their financial needs. After the marriage ends, the dependent spouse is already at a disadvantage, and courts want to make sure that the paying spouse continues to uphold their end of at least the financial bond of marriage.
In a perfect world, a paying spouse acknowledges what the dependent spouse gave up for their marriage and they simply pay alimony as determined by the courts. In the majority of instances, though, the paying spouse is going to contest a request for alimony or try to get the amount reduced as much as possible, even if it's a fair amount.
How We Can Help
We're able to help you recover spousal support in the event of your divorce. How? It's simple. We know what we're doing! We've been working in family law for decades now and we've encountered just about every instance of spousal support requests imaginable. We know how to calculate what you deserve after your divorce and we know how to talk to the courts so that they uphold those laws.
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On the other side, we're able to handle issues of alimony requests that are unfair or incorrect. Sometimes a spouse asks for too much alimony. We're well-versed in this tactic, too, and can help you get an alimony payment reduced to something more reasonable or in some cases, we can prove that alimony shouldn't be paid. We represent the interests of our clients, not one side or the other. It's our job to make sure that when it comes to alimony, both parties are following the law and doing what is right and fair.
If you have an issue with alimony payments, whether it's calculating them or getting them reduced or raised, we can help you every step of the way. We'll look at your side of the story and then aggressively defend your interests in a court of law, from the beginning of the divorce all the way to the divorce decree.