Alimony, which is also known as maintenance or spousal support, is the legal duty of one spouse to provide financial support to the other spouse after marital separation or divorce. The theory of alimony is founded on the principle that both spouses have a duty to support each other during their marriage/civil union and after the dissolution of their status together. Either party may seek temporary alimony once the dissolution begins. If the court grants the dissolution, either party may then ask for “post-marital alimony”. The court may grant alimony based on the specific circumstances of the case. If one party was already receiving temporary alimony, the court’s previous order is not automatically continued because the circumstances might have changed after the dissolution is finalized. The party may still request for the order to continue though.The court will determine the alimony with arguments and evidence submitted by both parties if the parties could not reach an agreement on their own. Some of the factors that the judge may consider in determining the alimony are the ages of the parties, length of the marriage/civil union, the reason of the dissolution and the relative income of the parties. Some states have statutes that have explicit guidelines on the amount and/or duration of alimony that the judges must follow unless the judge determined there were special, extenuating circumstances. In other states, the family court judges have complete discretion in ruling on the duration and amount of alimony. Some alimony awards in states have a life long duration regardless of the length of the marriage/civil union.
There are four types of alimony: permanent, rehabilitative, reimbursement and temporary alimony. Permanent alimony is the alimony that supports the lesser earning spouse until the death of the other spouse, the death of the recipient spouse or the remarriage of the recipient spouse. Rehabilitative alimony is the support given to a lesser earning spouse for a defined duration in order to allow this spouse to acquire work. Temporary alimony is the alimony given to a party prior to the finalized divorce. Reimbursement alimony is the repayment of expenses incurred by a spouse during marriage. An example of this type of alimony is educational expenses.
The order from the court may be modified at any time if there is a change in circumstances. Any party can also try to modify by giving proper notice to the other party and submitting an application to the court. Unless the reasons to modify the order are compelling, courts typically are reluctant to change the order.
State law governs alimony payments, recovery and penalties. If one spouse fails to make payments when such spouse has the means to, that spouse may be found in contempt of court and consequently be imprisoned.
There is ongoing alimony reform in some states because of the changing times. The family dynamics have changed dramatically with working mothers and stay at home dads that some states perceive the previous rules could not accommodate for these new circumstances. Some states have reacted by trying to move away from permanent alimony awards. Those states are replacing such awards with rehabilitative alimony. Other states have kept permanent alimony awards.
