Alimony & Spousal Maintenance

When you’re a stay-at-home parent or only work part-time, filing for divorce can be more stressful than normal. When you have little to no income, how can you afford a divorce attorney who will ensure that you get your fair share of the marital estate and, if necessary, spousal maintenance until you’re on stronger ground…

When you file for divorce in New York, all property acquired while you were married is subject to an equitable division and distribution. This includes real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and, to the surprise of some couples, pension benefits earned while you and your spouse were still together. If you are divorcing on amicable…

In New York, professional degrees and licenses are generally considered marital property and subject to division on divorce. If you earned either one while married and later divorce, then an expert may value it and divide it to reflect your spouse’s support during the education and licensing process. The New York case O’Brien vs. O’Brien…

At one time, New York was a common law property state, meaning that all assets titled in the name of one spouse belonged to them after divorce. This created so many financial difficulties, especially for women who gave up careers to raise a family, that in 1980 New York passed the Equitable Distribution Law, which…

If you are filing for divorce in New York and have a retirement plan or are eligible for a pension, then you will almost certainly hear the term “Majauskas Formula” during your case. A 1984 New York State Court of Appeals case titled Majauskas v Majauskas established the right of one spouse to the other’s…

When a couple divorces or separates, the court looks at their respective incomes to decide how much child support to award or whether spousal support is called for. When both spouses are employees, calculating income is a relatively simple matter of checking W-2s. When one or both parties are self-employed, things get complicated. Statistics show…

You may have received many valuable gifts from friends and family during the recent holidays. Each one either came with a tag bearing your name or was handed to you directly by the giver. This means that it was meant exclusively for you, but if your marriage ever ends, it’s possible that the gift could…

When you file for divorce, you expect your life to change. You will no longer be living under the same roof as your former spouse, your standard of living may be different, and many social routines will change. What you may not anticipate is how your FICO score will be affected. The simple act of…

Spousal maintenance, as alimony is called in New York, is a series of payments one makes to their former spouse during or after a divorce. Its purpose is to enable the recipient to maintain the same standard of living he or she did during the marriage, as well as help them financially as he or…

One of the most common questions brought to the offices of New York divorce attorneys has to do with alimony. Many spouses are curious about how spousal maintenance is determined, how long it lasts, and whether an order for it can ever be changed. There are two main types of alimony that can be awarded…

The outcome of your New York divorce might include an order for spousal maintenance to be paid by one party to the other. The maintenance award will either be set for a certain period of time or for life, and the most popular option is for judges to award spousal support for a specific period…

In New York State, one ground, or legal basis, for a divorce is an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. In other words, if a couple’s marriage has failed, then they are allowed to get a divorce. Prior to allowing this type of divorce in New York, the courts required grounds such as adultery or abandonment.…

Divorce can prove challenging for some, but for those aged over 50, financial challenges may the biggest of all according to a new study conducted at Bowling Green State University as reported in an October 24, 2014 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. If someone is aged 50 or over, then they are probably close to…

What is alimony? New Jersey has been discussing alimony reform and has recently passed a new law, according to an NJ.com article from June 30, 2014. Alimony, also referred to as spousal maintenance or support, is awarded by a judge as a court order. In New Jersey, the order can have unlimited duration making it…

After a divorce, a person is usually ordered by the court to provide alimony or spousal support to his or her former spouse.  There are four types of alimony that a court can award: temporary alimony, rehabilitative alimony, permanent alimony and reimbursement alimony.  Temporary alimony lasts for a brief time, usually during the pending divorce…

The Fourth Division of New York’s Appellate Court has recently held that an ex-spouse must continue to pay his ex-wife’s health insurance premium for an unfixed period of time, as reported by the New York Law Journal in a March 21, 2013 news article. This court ruled this way because the ex- husband’s prior court…

With divorce comes the division of assets, if there are any, and the determination of alimony payments which vary from state to state. Currently in New York, according to O’Brien, a professional degree that is obtained during the marriage is considered marital property. Thus it is subject to equitable distribution, meaning that the spouse who…

New York State is perhaps the state with the most peculiar divorce laws. It was the last state to allow no-fault divorces and it has a seemingly strange equitable distribution law that stemmed from the O’Brien 1985 divorce case. This law allows degrees, professional licenses and even individual talents to be “split” in a divorce,…

Bronx woman found to have the right to inherit her late ex-husband’s life insurance policy, as reported in an article published in the New York Law Journal on October 30, 2012. Although the woman was unable to produce a marriage license and the deceased man’s death certificate listed him as divorced, the judge ruled that…