After a 10-year marriage, you decide to obtain a divorce from your spouse. Your ex-spouse did not work during the marriage in order to help raise your three children. Now, your ex-spouse is requesting that you pay spousal support to help ease the financial transition. Will you be obligated to pay a monthly spousal support payment? If so, how much will you have to pay?

The skilled spousal support attorneys at Wallin & Klarich understand how stressful spousal support matters can be and are ready to represent your best interests in family law court.

How does the spousal support process begin?

There must be a court case in order for spousal support to be legally established. You or your ex-spouse can petition a family law court to order spousal support following a legal separation, divorce, or annulment.

You or your spouse can also request “temporary spousal support” while the divorce is pending. Once the divorce or legal separation is finalized, any spousal support order will be considered “permanent or long-term spousal support.”

What guidelines will a family law court consider in order to determine spousal support?

Temporary Spousal Support Order

Each county in California has adopted a spousal support guideline formula for determining temporary spousal support. The guideline calculation takes into consideration the incomes of both spouses, as well as whether one spouse has already been ordered to pay child support. Thus, the amount of your temporary spousal support order may depend on the county where your case is located. An experienced spousal support attorney can advise you as to the guideline calculation that is used in your county.

Permanent Spousal Support Order

Family law courts have wider discretion in making permanent spousal support orders. Unlike a child support order, a judge will not use a mathematical formula to calculate the amount of a permanent spousal support that you must pay your ex-spouse. Rather, a judge will consider the factors listed under California Family Code section 4320. These factors include the following:

• The length of the marriage;
• The financial amount that each person needs to maintain the standard of living they had during the marriage;
• What each person is capable of paying in order to maintain the standard of living they had during the marriage;
• The age and health of you and your ex-spouse;
• Whether maintaining employment would burden child-care duties;
• Any debts or property that you or your ex-spouse accumulated during marriage;
• Whether there was any domestic violence during the marriage;
• Whether one spouse’s career was affected by unemployment or by taking care of the children at home;
• The tax impact of spousal support;
• Whether one spouse helped the other to obtain an education, training, career or professional license.

Contact the spousal support attorneys at Wallin & Klarich

The family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich have over 30 years of experience successfully helping clients obtain, modify, and terminate spousal support orders. We know that our clients are going through a difficult transition. We are committed to providing timely, informative legal advice to our clients. When you place your trust in a Wallin & Klarich attorney, you can rely on our promise to get you the best possible outcome in your case.

Recently, one of our premier Wallin & Klarich family law attorneys, Yvette Ochoa, helped her client modify his spousal support order. After meeting with her client and collecting the necessary information, Ms. Ochoa successfully argued that his current spousal support amount presented a financial burden. Due to Ms. Ochoa’s attention to detail in considering all of the evidence, her client was able to lower his spousal and child support payments by $750 per month. This is a savings to our client of $9,000 per year.

Our offices are located in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Torrance, West Covina, Sherman Oaks, Victorville, San Bernardino, and Ventura. Give us a call today at (888) 749-7428 to speak with an experienced spousal support attorney. We will be there when you call.