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Staten Island Alimony/Maintenance Lawyers
Last Updated on: 23rd June 2025, 02:04 pm
An alimony payment is funds paid by a spouse to his or her partner after divorce. It is also known as spousal maintenance or spousal support. Each state has got its own bylaws on alimony. However, it’s not an automatic right. Therefore, judges are not supposed to order it. Whether you pay or receive maintenance, it depends on your condition and the laws in your state.
Most people have the mentality that alimony is only given to women, but it is also awarded to men. For instance, a man who stayed at home to look after a kid while his wife worked is entitled to have spouse support.
Alimony Payments
The judge who hears your divorce case usually considers your bills and income before making any order for you to pay alimony. It may not be ordered entirely if you can’t afford to pay. He/she understands that you require enough cash to sustain yourself. If the judge orders you to pay the alimony and you fail, chances are you will be sent to jail for disobeying court’s orders. A judge is capable of deducting cash straight from your bank account or paycheck to pay the delinquent alimony.
Spousal support and alimony
Judges may grant alimony for different reasons. You might be awarded alimony if you relied on your spouse throughout your marriage. By ordering your former partner to pay alimony, the judge is allowing you to have time to get an employment or learn new skills so that you can sustain yourself. The chances are higher that you’ll be awarded alimony if you are old and got married many years ago. Maintenance is also allocated if you can’t work away from home because you may be taking care of a child with special needs.
Alimony calculations
A judge normally considers a person’s marital lifestyle before they can order alimony. He or she will try to assist spouses who don’t earn a lot of money to maintain their living standards as they make their financial adjustment to the single life. The judge can still modify your alimony in case there are changes in your life circumstances. For example, when you remarry, the alimony payments can be terminated or reduced.
Do you require a Staten Island Alimony attorney?
It’s necessary to have a maintenance attorney if you are undergoing a divorce and your present divorce attorney does not specialize in this kind of spousal case. Often, divorce attorneys will cover the entire divorce proceedings as well as spousal support. However, make sure you confirm with your lawyer ahead of time to know if the services are covered or not.
Staten Island maintenance lawyer can help
Laws surrounding spousal support and divorce are complicated. What’s more, the facts of each case also differ. A spousal support attorney will represent you when you want to negotiate the alimony amount or when you want to try to change an amount that had been prearranged. A maintenance lawyer can still take you through the needed lawsuit if a partner denies paying the agreed or negotiated amount.
Whether you are receiving or making the payment, an alimony lawyer will get you the settlement you are comfortable with. He or she can deal with premarital and postnuptial agreement in case you have one. Sometimes the support negotiations might get out of hand, but Staten Island Alimony lawyers should mediate the situation.