Spousal Support In A Divorce

Today we’re talking about spousal support in a divorce case and dealing with the issue of spousal support in marital dissolution matters.

If you have any questions or would like to speak with a skilled attorney about a family law matter, contact Hartley, Lamas, Et Al today at 805-919-8346.

Transcript:
Hi, today we’re talking about spousal support in a divorce case. I’m John Castellano. I’m a partner with Hartley llamas, and I have over 25 years practicing family law and dealing with the issue of spousal support in marital dissolution matters.

Temporary Support vs Judgment

Spousal support can be looked at, in a divorce case, in two different phases. The first phase runs from the start of the case until judgment is entered. During this first phase, which is often referred to as the temporary support phase, the court is really just looking to maintain the status quo that the parties are in, pending the outcome of the case or judgment.

Income Disparity

And really, the main factor that the court is looking at and determining the amount of support is just the disparity of the party’s income at the start of the case. So, it really is kind of a simple mathematical equation in terms of determining the amount of temporary support. It’s just basically income disparity to create a temporary support order pending judgment.

Post-Judgment and Family Code Section 4320

During the second phase, which runs from judgment and then ongoing, basically indefinitely, depending on the factors in your case, the court widens the analysis quite a bit based on Family Code section 4320. And under Family Code section 4320, there are a number of factors that the court looks at in terms of determining the amount of the support and the duration of support.

And support can be modified over time, based on the factors in the Family Code section 4320. Some of the factors are the length of the marriage, the health of the parties, the capacity to earn, whether one party needs to be re-educated or retrained because they were out of the market during significant portions of the marriage, and several other factors, including the marital standard of living, and many other factors.

The court looks at these factors in determining both the amount of support at any given time after the judgment and the duration of support post-judgment. And there’s really no clear direction from the Family Code in terms of how much weight each individual factor is given by the court. The court has a lot of discretion in this area, depending on the facts of each case.

Help With Spousal Support in a Divorce Case

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