Spousal support is more complicated and fluid than child support. The current legislation and caselaw allows judges to exercise a lot of discretion in determining the appropriate amount and duration of spousal support. Judges heavily rely on a spectrum of outcomes pursuant to the Spousal Support Guidelines. These guidelines can be found using this link.
Typical spousal support issues include entitlement (whether the requesting party is even entitled to receive any spousal support), duration and quantum (the amount of support).
Sometimes a party may have an entitlement, but the calculations may result in the payment being zero dollars per month. Sometimes the parties may disagree how long support should be payable for or whether a termination date is even appropriate.
Entitlement
Should you be receiving spousal support or do you have risk of paying it to the other party? Those are the questions that one may want to have answers to.
There are two types of entitlement bases. One basis of entitlement is compensatory and another is non-compensatory. There is also a contractual basis but it is a rare phenomenon. It means the parties had signed a contract with respect to who is entitled to support. Courts usually deal with compensatory and non-compensatory claims.
Compensatory spousal support is based on the notion of recognizing both spouses’ contributions towards the marriage where one spouse may have made certain sacrifices. There are many factors that may affect the court’s determination. One indicator of a compensatory claim is when one spouse had to stay at home and raise the children while the other spouse advanced their career.
Non-compensatory spousal support claim is based on the needs of the spouse after the parties’ separation. Some of the indicators include a drop in the recipient’s standard of living, a significant income disparity, illness, etc.
Quantum How Much Do You Have to Pay
Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines provides a range of possible scenarios of the amount entitlement. It can be a monthly amount or a lump sum amount. Most often legal professionals and judges refer to these guidelines despite them not being mandatory. Usually the numbers are provided on a spectrum. It includes low-range, mid-range and high-range bases of support. A judge will assess many factors and determine on what basis it would be appropriate to award a certain amount.
Duration How Long Should You Receive or Pay Spousal Support
The default rule of thumb is that the duration of spousal support will range between 6 months to 1 year for each year of marriage (or cohabitation). However, it becomes indefinite after 20 years of marriage (or cohabitation). Some people mistakenly believe that indefinite spousal support means “forever”. It is not the case. There are factors that may favor termination regardless of whether it is an indefinite support or not. For example, if a person retires and the payor’s income significantly decreases to the point that the payor’s net disposable income is lower than that of the recipient after paying to the recipient, it may warrant either a decrease in monthly payments or a termination.
At Progressive Legal Solutions, we have seen many difficult files. Sometimes after having paid spousal support for over a decade the recipient still wants more money. Sometimes the recipients asked to extend a termination date or request that there is no termination date set in the final agreement or order. As such, it is important to have a counsel who is able to identify the many nuances associated with support. Those nuances may affect the payor or recipient in the future despite the parties not thinking about it at the moment of signing of the agreement or a consent order.
Progressive Legal Solutions can help you with the issues related to spousal support and all other issues arising out of your separation.