What You Need to Know:
- Spousal Support is the term used for payments from one spouse to another after a divorce has been filed. It is broken down into two types: temporary (also called pendente lite) spousal support and permanent spousal support.
- Temporary Spousal Support is support that is ordered during the pendency of the divorce proceeding. This kind of support is to maintain the living conditions and standards of both parties until permanent spousal support has been determined.
- Permanent Spousal Support is the support amount ordered once the divorce is finalized. The purpose of permanent spousal support is to provide the spouse with sufficient income for their basic needs and to ensure their lifestyle will be able to remain consistent after the divorce. The Court will consider the factors as set forth in Family Code Section 4320, including but not limited to, the duration of the marriage, the standard of living and needs of each spouse during the marriage, the amount that each spouse can pay to keep up the standard of living during the marriage, the age of both spouses, the health of both spouses, the debts and property of each spouse, whether one of the spouses helped the other to acquire an education, career or other professional value, whether one of the spouses’ careers was affected by unemployment, whether one of the spouses’ careers was affected by taking care of the couple’s children of their home, tax impacts and existence of domestic violence