When a marriage comes to an end through a divorce, the court will have a couple of decisions to make. One of these is whether to award alimony or spousal support to one party.
Alimony is not granted in every California divorce case. For instance, the court may not award alimony when it believes one party is attempting to take advantage of the other.
How the court makes the decision to award spousal support
The court will not award spousal support simply to castigate one party for their contribution to the divorce. Even so, the court will take into account the circumstances that lead to the divorce while making the decision on alimony. For instance, if there were claims of adultery, the court might find you ineligible for spousal support unless you can demonstrate that denying you the support would be gravely unfair.
If the court decides that you are eligible for spousal support, it will take a number of factors into account regarding the amount and the duration of the payments. Here are some of these factors:
- The duration of the marriage
- Each spouse’s needs, obligations and financial sources
- Each spouse’s age, state of physical and mental health as well as other special personal and family circumstances
- The standard of living while you were married
- Each party’s contributions during the marriage
- Each party’s property, including what they are leaving the marriage with
- Ability to acquire education or training the receiving spouse needs to get work
- Other factors that will make an award of spousal support fair to both parties such as tax implications as well as the reasons for the divorce.
Spousal support can be a contentious subject during the divorce. Find out how you can safeguard your rights and interests while negotiating or litigating spousal support during your California divorce.