Long Island Spousal Maintenance Attorneys
Negotiating Spousal Support Awards with Your Needs in Mind
Alimony, or spousal support/maintenance, is monetary support that one spouse may be required by law to pay to the other spouse when they divorce. The purpose of spousal maintenance is to help a spouse ultimately become self-sufficient after a divorce.
At Pickney Law Firm, we have helped numerous clients from all walks of life resolve spousal support disputes. Our Long Island spousal maintenance attorneys can help you negotiate an agreement whether you are the payee or the payor. We proudly serve clients throughout Nassau County.
How Spousal Maintenance Is Determined
Post-divorce maintenance is awarded after the final divorce proceedings, which is different from temporary maintenance, which is paid while the divorce process is still ongoing.
Spousal maintenance can be temporary (during the divorce action), durational (for a fixed period of time), or permanent. Temporary spousal maintenance is currently calculated with a mathematical formula. Unlike child support, the courts do not currently have a fixed formula to calculate post-divorce maintenance awards.
At a trial, a judge will decide a final alimony award by considering certain factors, including:
- The length of the marriage
- Each spouse’s income
- The parties’ separate property and marital property
- The age and health of each spouse
- The ability of the spouse seeking maintenance to become gainfully employed or self-supporting
- The present and future earning capacities of each spouse
- The training or education expenses that would be required for one to become self-supporting
- If the spouse seeking maintenance has lost or reduced lifetime earning capacity as a result of missed training, education, or career opportunities during the marriage
- Which spouse the children will live with
- Whether a spouse’s earning capacity is diminished by the responsibility of caring for the children, stepchildren, or other family members for whom that spouse is the sole caretaker
- If the spouse seeking maintenance will have difficulty finding employment as a result of age or being absent from the workforce for a significant period of time
- Expenses of the children
- The tax consequences to each party
- The contributions and services of the maintenance-seeking party, as a spouse, parent, homemaker, wage earner, and the employment or potential employment of the other spouse
- The loss, cost, and availability of health insurance
- Any transfer or encumbrance of marital property made in anticipation of a matrimonial action without fair consideration
- The wasteful dissipation of marital property by either party
- Any other factors that the court finds just and proper