Contact A Maybrook Alimony Attorney
Proper calculations of spousal maintenance are essential for ensuring your financial success after divorce. Our attorneys will work with you to address your concerns and protect your rights throughout the legal process, helping you reach a positive outcome to your case. Contact our Oak Park law office at 708-480-9651 to arrange a free consultation today. We represent divorcing spouses in Chicago, Cicero, Riverside, Berwyn, Skokie, Elmwood Park, and throughout Cook County.
What About Temporary Spousal Support
Spouses often need some kind of maintenance payments to help them cover their living expenses while a divorce case is proceeding. Often, the rules for awarding temporary alimony are different than for so-called permanent support. That’s partly because while a couple is still married, state laws require spouses to support each other.
To simplify the process of deciding the amount of temporary alimony, some states and local courts use a formula or guideline.
You don’t always have leave it up to a judge make a decision about alimony in your divorce. In fact, going to trial on any disputes with your spouse is a sure-fire way of increasing the cost of divorce. You’ll most likely need a lawyer to navigate the trial process, including gathering the right kind of evidence and preparing for the hearing. And you might have to hire experts like vocational evaluators.
Calculating Your Expected Payment
If the court finds that alimony is needed, the law provides a formula to be used when a couples combined income is $250,000 or less and no multiple family situation exists. Using this formula, your obligation is found by taking 30 percent of your income and subtracting 20 percent of your spouses income, as long the result plus your spouses income does not exceed 40 percent of your combined income. The court, at its discretion, may alter the final amount based on the details of each individual case.
For answers to your questions regarding divorce and alimony in Illinois, contact Abear Law Offices. Call 630-804-3033 for a free consultation. We have locations in Wheaton, St. Charles, Naperville, Warrenville, and Chicago for your convenience.
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How Much Alimony Will I Owe In North Carolina
How much alimony a person will owe is a common question divorce attorneys get from people in the beginning stages of the divorce process. It is a valid concern that should be discussed with a skilled family law attorney.
There is no chart or formula that determines how much alimony a person will owe or be entitled to receive. The judge handling the divorce determines whether alimony should be awarded and the amount on a case-by-case basis, after reviewing the specific details of the marriage.
Alimony: What Should I Expect To Pay After A Divorce
Calculating alimony in a divorce is no easy task. Here’s how to approach it.
The purpose of child support is straightforward. When two parents divorce, its important that the kids are taken care of financially. But alimony? Theres something about being tied to your ex through a series of monthly checks that makes things more, well, complicated..
Alimony is such an emotional issue, says Mandy Walker, a divorce coach, mediator, and certified divorce financial analyst in Boulder, Colorado. Especially if the recipient of the support is the same person who initiated the divorce in the first place. And if your income is higher than your soon-to-be exs, youll want to think about what this divorce will cost you. Here, some questions to consider, so you can plan accordingly.
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Oklahoma Alimony Law Summary
What Circumstances are Required for Alimony?
In the state of Oklahoma, following dissolution of marriage, divorce, or legal separation, the court will take into consideration the circumstances of the parties and may require one party to pay spousal support, otherwise known as alimony, to the other party for any period of time. The court may also modify its spousal support orders. There are many factors that go into the consideration and decision of spousal support.
For alimony to be awarded, one spouse must have financial need and the other must have the financial ability to pay. The judge will also take into consideration the standard of living that was established for both spouses over the course of the marriage, the length of the marriage, the earning abilities of both spouses after divorce, and the time needed for the dependent spouse to gain education or training to become capable of earning an income capable of maintaining their standard of living. The estates and possessions of both spouses will also be taken into consideration to judge the need and financial ability of both spouses.
The District of Columbia has no formula to control the amount and length of alimony, or whether it shall be awarded A judge wilLAWard alimony in whatever amount and length of time that has been deemed fitting for the circumstances. Unless otherwise dictated, changes in income and need of both parties may modify or terminate alimony after it has been established.
Assessing Standard Of Living
Throughout the marriage, the couple experienced a particular standard of living. Divorce leaves the nonworking spouse with little income to maintain that standard of living. Alimony serves to help the spouse maintain a comparable standard of living. Alimony calculation uses gross income because this represents the standard of living the parties lived prior to the divorce.
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Know That Alimony In Pennsylvania Is Calculated Before Child Support
Third, and this is new for 2019 and beyond. Alimony is going to be calculated before child support. In the past, if you had minor children that were going to be subject to a child support order that was calculated first, and then alimony. That is now flipped as of 2019. Whether or not you have children you are going to calculate alimony first, and then if you have children then you will go on to calculate the child support. The way spousal support and APL are calculated in Pennsylvania is pursuant to a mathematical formula. It has to do with the percentage of each parties net monthly income, and by net monthly income, I mean how much money do you have after youve paid taxes that month. Maybe you earn $7,000 gross a month, you pay your taxes, and then you end up with a net income of $5,000. The calculation is going to be based on your net income and your spouses net income.
The second part of the formula is that you have to know if youre going to have a child support order or not because the percentages of each of your net incomes thats used in the calculation are going to be different. Without children, you take 33% of the obligors net income and 40% of the obligees net income, and then the difference is going to be alimony. With children, youre going to take 25% percent of the obligors net income and 30% of the obligees net income, and then again, the difference is going to be how much is payable in spousal support or alimony pendente lite.
How Much Alimony Will Be Paid
Except for reimbursement alimony or unusual circumstances, the amount of alimony should generally be no more than the receiving spouse needs or 3035 percent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes when the order is issued.
The Child Support Guidelines include a list of what counts as gross income. Income the court wont count includes:
- Capital gains income and dividend and interest income which come from assets you have already fairly divided
- Gross income a judge used or is using for a child support order
If the judge awards general term alimony or rehabilitative alimony, they may decide not to follow the limits for how long you should pay alimony or how much it should be, if there are good reasons to do so. Reasons may include:
If the spouse whos paying alimony remarries, a judge whos deciding whether to increase the alimony will not consider the new spouses income.
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What Is A Spouse’s Earning Capacity
As we’ve seen, states typically require judges to consider both spouses’ ability to earn. That means a judge won’t just look at current income, but what spouses could reasonably earn, given their education, training, experience, job skills, and the local demand for those skills.
When either spouse is voluntarily earning below their potential, the judge may “impute” income to that spouse. For example, say you were the high-earning spouse in your marriage, making $200,000 a year as a lawyer. But after you and your spouse separated, you quit your job to become a sculptor earning less than $30,000 a year. The judge might order you to pay an amount of alimony consistent with your ability to earn rather than your actual earnings.
However, if you had a valid reason to switch to a lower-paying jobfor instance, because work-related stress was causing medical and psychological harmyou might be able to provide evidence to convince a judge not to base the alimony amount on your old salary. But you can expect a fight from your spouse or ex.
The supported spouse’s current and future earning potential also comes into play when judges are setting the amount of alimony. As part of rehabilitative alimony, judges often order a vocational evaluation with an expert who will analyze how much that spouse can currently earn and what steps need to be taken in order to become self-supporting.
Types Of Alimony In Colorado
The difference in the stories of each couple mean that there are different types of alimony, each designed to meet the needs of a specific situation
Rehabilitative Alimony: This is alimony aimed at paying for the economically disadvantaged spouse to obtain the job skills necessary to support themselves in the manner they were accustomed to living.
For example, lets look at our couple where the stay-at-home spouse had only been out of the workforce for two years. Lets extend that absence to 10 years. The spouse still has a long career ahead of them, but they fell behind on certifications, licensing, and other professional knowledge. They just need a little time to get up to speed. Rehabilitative alimony will cover the cost of doing that.
Reimbursement Alimony: Lets bring in a new hypothetical example. Here, we have two young people who meet in college. One of them is sharp in chemistry and needs to go to graduate school if they are to enjoy a teaching career. Money is lacking. This couple gets married shortly after finishing their undergrad work. As part of building for their shared future, they put out the money for the chemist to go to grad school.
The way a court may resolve this is to order reimbursement alimony. The spouse who helped pay for school doesnt need help with financial support. But it may be concluded they deserve to at least be paid back their share of the costs of the others grad school studies.
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How Long Do You Have To Be Married To Get Alimony
There is no exact answer for how long a couple has to be married for one spouse to have to pay alimony to the other.
In many cases, shorter marriages are less likely to result in alimony payments, whereas longer marriages in which one spouse made significantly less money and/or stayed home to raise children will likely require one spouse to pay alimony to the other.
The purpose of alimony is for the lower-earning spouse to be able to maintain the same standard of living enjoyed during the marriage. In most states, longer marriages are associated with higher alimony payments and a longer duration of payments.
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Factors For Determining Maintenance Awards In Texas
Texas law begins every maintenance case with the presumption that spousal maintenance is not appropriate. However, if requesting spouses can demonstrate they have made a good faith effort to earn an income or acquire the education or training necessary to become financially independent during the separation and divorce process , the court will move forward with a maintenance evaluation.
The court will evaluate the following factors to determine the nature, amount, duration, and payment method of support:
- each spouses ability to provide for that spouses reasonable needs
- the education and employment skills of both spouses, the time necessary to acquire education or training to enable the supported spouse to earn enough income to become financially independent
- the duration of the marriage
- the age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance
- if child support is a factor in the case, each spouses ability to meet needs while paying child support
- whether either spouse wasted, concealed, destroyed, or otherwise disposed of any community property
- whether either spouse contributed to the others education, training, or increased earning power during the marriage
- the property both spouses brought to the marriage
- any contributions of a spouse as a homemaker
- marital misconduct, including adultery and cruel treatment, by either spouse during the marriage, and
- any history or pattern of family violence.
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Legal Practice Tools: Massachusetts Family Law
Legal Practice Tools is a mobile application designed to provide legal resources on the go.
Attorney David M. Bilodeau is the creator of Legal Practice Tools and its mobile applications. Mr. Bilodeau is an Associate at Goldstein & Bilodeau, PC., where his practice focuses on all aspects of family law. Mr. Bilodeau has a BS in Physics and prior to becoming an attorney, he worked in the private sector for several years as a research scientist.
As a practicing attorney, Mr. Bilodeau realized that there is a critical need to have access to important legal resource while in court or from any other place besides the desk. It was that need that led to the creation of Legal Practice Tools.
The application is meant to give a practitioners everything all the resources they need to get work done on the go. It is also an excellent tool for anyone who wants to learn about a particular area of the law.
To order the Massachusetts Family Law app,
Massachusetts Alimony Calculator is based on March 2012 Massachusetts Alimony Reform Act . This calculator determines, the amount and duration of an alimony obligation based on the parties income, age of the payor, length of the marriage and child support. Figures are based on the amount and duration of “General Term Alimony”.
Under the new law, the amount of alimony can be between 30-35% of the payor’s income. The duration of the alimony obligation depends on the length of the marriage .
Click here for full break down of the new alimony laws.
How Much Alimony Can I Expect To Pay
Common methods for calculating spousal support typically take up to 40% of the paying spouses net income, which is calculated after child support. 50% of the recipient spouses net income is then subtracted from the total if he or she is working. Spousal support amounts should be agreed to by both parties and can be waived by the recipient spouse. When we talk about spousal maintenance, support, and alimony we are talking about the same thing. Although spousal support is not mandatory in most states, it can be mandated by a judge depending on certain conditions, in particular:
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Can I Get Alimony For How Many Years Would I Get The Payments
Your spouse can be ordered to pay you alimony if the judge finds that you were financially dependent on your spouse during the marriage . You can prove you were dependent if all of the following apply:
- you relied on your spouse for financial support
- you dont have sufficient property, including marital property, to provide for your needs and
- you are unable to support yourself through work or you cannot work due to caring for a child whose condition makes it inappropriate for you to work.1
Even if you can prove you are the dependent party, there are still many factors a judge will consider when deciding if you will get alimony and how much you will get. See What factors will a judge consider when deciding whether or not I get alimony? for more information.
Alimony payments can be ordered to start while the divorce is still pending in court, which is known as interim or temporary alimony,2 and for a period of time after the divorce is finalized. The court will determine how long you or the other party will receive alimony. If you have been married for 20 years or longer, there is no limit to how long you can receive alimony. However, if you were married for less than 20 years, you cannot collect alimony for more than 50% of the length of the marriage.3 For example, if you were married for 10 years, you could only collect alimony for up to five years.
1 13 Del.C. § 1512, 2 13 Del.C. § 1512
Washington Alimony Law Summary
How Does Alimony Work?
In the state of Washington, a maintenance order, or an alimony agreement, is based on a spouses duty to support the other after divorce when dependency has been established. An individual going through a divorce or legal separation may file for alimony if they have become dependent on their spouse for the standard of living established during the course of the marriage, whether or not the alimony is decided in a court of law is dependent on several factors.
The amount and requirement of alimony payments will be decided by the court without consideration of misconduct. There are many relevant factors in the consideration of alimony payments.
Custody of any children, and any child support required between parties of the divorce, are two other factors in the amount and consideration of alimony. If the spouse with custody of the children is unable to support themselves due to the children being of an age or condition that it hinders the individuals ability to support the child, such as if they must remain home to care for the child, it would severely influence the case for alimony to be received by the custodian of said child or children.
In the end, if an agreement cannot be made between the two parties, alimony is awarded at the final judgment of the judge and court deciding the case.
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