Alimony

The goal of alimony is to continue the standard of living established in the marriage. Alimony is designed to assist the economically weaker spouse in making the transition from marriage to life as a single person by providing income to them after the marriage is dissolved.

The amount and type of alimony is strictly determined by your individual situation and is very fact sensitive. Some factors that go into alimony award determinations include: the number of years of marriage, the history of the marriage, the age of the parties, the employment history and skills of the economically weaker spouse, and other factors.

Alimony can take many forms including:

• Permanent Period provides for ongoing monthly payments until the death or remarriage of recipient. Recent changes in the law allow modifications in cases of "cohabitation in a financially supportive relationship," even without remarriage.
• Temporary Alimony is money paid to the spouse to provide support during the divorce.
• Rehabilitative Alimony is alimony paid to allow the spouse to gain new employment skills.
• Bridge the Gap Alimony is alimony designed to carry a spouse over for a shorter period of time so that they can reestablish themselves.
• Lump-Sum Alimony is awarded by a Court when ongoing monthly payments aren't a solution.

You can be assured that my experience with evaluating financial conditions will allow us to put forth your best claim or defense to alimony.

I take a creative approach to examining your case and your alimony claim in order to find ways to resolve issues surrounding alimony claims to your best advantage. In some instances we can negotiate a settlement to a difficult alimony case by looking at alternatives to the standard alimony awards so that the financial deal makes better sense for both of the parties. For example, while alimony is usually tax deductible to the payer and taxable to the recipient, that can be changed by agreement between the parties, so long as the proper notifications are made to the IRS. I have used the transfer of the tax liability for the alimony payments as a way to solve complicated alimony claims under terms that everyone could live with.