Spousal support laws seek to prevent a divorced spouse from suffering a decrease in his/her standard of living. Oftentimes after divorce, one spouse has been out of the workforce for such a significant amount of time that it would be difficult for them to quickly attain a job or professional position that would allow them to maintain the standard of living they may have had while they were married.
The working spouse may be ordered to pay the stay-at-home spouse spousal support.
The court generally considers each party’s needs and ability to pay when setting the amount of spousal support. The dollar amount is calculated using each party’s income. Thus, the court may order that a stay-at-home spouse find themselves job training or education to prepare for a career in order to reenter the workforce.
The court may give the stay-at-home spouse time to find a job and order the working spouse pay spousal support in the interim. Not paying court ordered spousal support can have very serious consequences, such as time in jail. Also, the supported spouse may have a claim for arrears in spousal support plus 10 percent interest. To ask for a change in the support amount, there needs to be a “change in circumstances.” The change in circumstances can be that the spouse getting support is not making a good-faith effort to become self-supporting. In the event the supported spouse does not take the necessary steps to become self-supporting, the court may decrease or even terminate the person’s right to spousal support by imputing an income to the non-working or underemployed spouse. Imputed income is a method courts use to assign or credit an income to a spouse. The imputed income is then included in spousal support calculations.
Also, under California law, spousal support is meant to end. In marriages lasting less than 10 years, a reasonable amount of time for one spouse to pay the other spouse alimony is usually half the marriage’s length. Marriages that last longer than 10 years follow different rules when determining spousal support. Numerous appellate courts and California Family Code, Section 4320, state that the supported spouse should become self-supporting as soon as reasonably possible if the marriage lasted 10 years or longer.
For more information about support and other family law matters, contact the Reape-Rickett Law Firm at 661-288-1000. They are located at 25152 Springfield Court, Suite 100 in Valencia.