Alimony Lawyers In New York
When a divorce is pending or once it ends, the court wants to make sure that both spouses can continue to enjoy the livelihoods that they had while married. This is where alimony becomes important, and where Davidoff Law can lend a hand. Our Queens alimony lawyers are here to make sure that the financial decisions and agreements in your divorce are fair and work toward your best interests.
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What Is Alimony?
Alimony is an arrangement for one spouse to pay financial support to the other. Expectedly, the spouse who makes more income will be the one who pays alimony to the other, except in unusual circumstances.
When alimony is arranged while the spouses are still married, it is called spousal support. This can be used to make sure that the spouse of lesser income stays financially afloat while the divorce is pending. Once a divorce or separation is finalized, alimony is technically called spousal maintenance. This can be used to keep the spouse of lesser income out of financial hardships or just to keep their lifestyle similar to when they were still married.
Deciding Alimony Amount & Duration
Many people think that alimony is used to reward the spouse of lesser income and/or punish the spouse of greater income. This is not how a New York family law court sees it, though. Instead, the court will only want to establish alimony if one spouse would be placed at a financial disadvantage or in undue hardship without it. With this approach in mind, the court has to consider many factors to decide the duration and amount of alimony.
The court will weigh these factors when deciding on alimony:
- Current income of both spouses
- Potential for income growth for both spouses
- Age, mental, and physical health of both spouses
- How long the marriage lasted
- Marital or shared property
- Number of children shared together
- If either spouse damaged the marriage intentionally
- And more
In some cases, alimony will be a relatively small amount for only a few years or less. In others, it can be a substantial monthly amount that lasts indefinitely. As your Queens alimony lawyers, it will be our job to make sure that the alimony or spousal maintenance is fair and justified, whether you are the one paying or receiving it.
Four Types Of New York Alimony
When the court decides to approve alimony, it will choose one of four different types. We are ready to help and represent you, regardless of which type is chosen.
Four types of alimony used in New York include:
- Permanent: Arranges monthly alimony payments indefinitely but can be subject to change.
- Temporary: Arranges alimony payments with a predetermined end date or end trigger.
- Rehabilitative: Creates alimony payments to help the spouse of lesser income while they advance their education, start a new career, or take other strides to improve their income.
- Restitution: Creates alimony payments to repay the spouse who financially supported the other while that second spouse was taking education or training courses.
Establish Alimony The Simple Way – Call Now
Let Davidoff Law handle your divorce from start to finish, including alimony and spousal maintenance. With our advanced legal experience working on alimony cases of all types, we can calculate the fair amount of alimony to bring before the court or to negotiations with your spouse’s legal representation. Your best interests are ours, so let’s protect them today.
