If you are contemplating a divorce, you may be considering the issue of spousal support. The financial upheaval of a divorce can wreak havoc on your finances as well as your spouses and make it difficult for one or both of you to live apart from the other.
At Moradi Saslaw, our spousal support attorneys represent clients involved in spousal support disputes regardless of their complexity. Our attorneys are:
Knowledgeable and adept in California spousal support laws and formulas;
Available to provide you with immediate representation in your spousal support case; and
Determined to reach a fair arrangement that suits your financial needs.
To learn more about how California’s spousal support laws could affect you, talk to a skilled attorney at Moradi Saslaw today. We will fight for a positive result on your behalf.
Our Palo Alto Spousal Support Attorneys Can Help
The impact of a spousal support decision can be financially crippling and ongoing whether you are the payor or the payee. At Moradi Saslaw, our spousal support attorneys will work tirelessly to secure a spousal support settlement that you are comfortable with and that meets your needs.
In doing so, our attorneys will:
Demonstrate a need or lack of a need for spousal support;
Show an ability or inability to pay a spouse support; and
Produce evidence to the court illustrating any factors that would impact a need or ability to pay spousal support on your behalf.
Contact the Palo Alto family law lawyers at Moradi Saslaw to discuss our spousal support approach and create a strategy tailored to meet your legal goals and expectations.
Types of Spousal Support in California
There are four types of spousal support in California: temporary, rehabilitative, permanent, and reimbursement spousal support. Temporary support is based on California child support guidelines and is only collectible while the divorce is pending.
Rehabilitative support is the most common type of spousal support. The purpose of rehabilitative support is to allow the lower-earning spouse an opportunity to gain valuable job skills or education to enter the workforce and become self-supporting.
Permanent spousal support is rarely ordered. It is generally reserved for long-term marriages where one spouse cannot enter the workforce due to advanced age or illness.
Reimbursement support is a means by which one spouse may recoup funds used during the marriage to help finance the other spouse’s education or career advancement training. This spousal support award is in place of any future benefit the other spouse would have realized had the couple stayed together.
How the Court Determines Spousal Support in California
Rehabilitative and permanent spousal support is first based on one spouse’s need for support and the other spouse’s ability to pay support. If the need and ability to pay spousal support exists, the court next determines each spouse’s income and evaluates the following factors, and more, to arrive at a spousal support amount:
Each spouse’s earning capacity;
The extent to which the supported spouse contributed to the other’s educational degree or professional license during the marriage;
Each spouse’s debts and assets, including separate property;
The length of the marriage;
The supported spouse’s ability to become employed without interfering with the care of the parties’ minor children;
Each party’s age and health;
Any documented history of domestic violence against either party or the children;
Tax consequences to each party;
The goal is that the recipient spouse will be self-supporting within a reasonable period; and
Any criminal conviction of an abusive spouse.
The duration of spousal support depends on the above-listed factors and the judge’s discretion. Rehabilitative and permanent support will end if the supported spouse remarries or if either party dies.
Contact an Experienced Palo Alto Spousal Support Attorney
Let Moradi Saslaw help you determine if spousal support is likely to be ordered in your divorce and help you financially plan for a future that involves paying or receiving support payments. Our experienced spousal support attorneys know the financial consequences of spousal support and will provide you with personal service and compassionate guidance throughout any spousal support issues that arise in your divorce. Contact us today.
(415)872-1080
