An unfortunate reality of divorce is the prospect of alimony. Not only do you have to deal with the emotional stress of your marriage ending but you now need to consider your future financial stability and usually this will include receiving alimony payments. Alimony lawyers are there to assist both parties through this process. The comfort of having this type of legal assistance is just like having workmans comp attorney for those who have been injured at work. Workmans comp lawyers are great to work with when you are faced in this situation and they can give you the claim that you need.
It is important that you know your legal obligations and rights, especially if your divorce has turned ugly. People can attempt to hide assets and avoid making payments, these are just a couple of reasons it’s best to have a good alimony attorney working for you.
Alimony lawyers are responsible for investigating the financial contributions each of you have made during marriage, incomes earned, incomes lost, property and businesses’ owned, debts, future earning potential, contributions to the home and to your partners career and the physical and mental state of both parties. They will asses this information to first determine whether or not a judge is likely to order alimony, and then to determine the amount to ask for or what may be reasonable in your situation.
If your marriage lasted less than five years you will find it much harder to claim alimony, not necessarily impossible, but much harder. The courts assume that you still maintain some financial individuality and unless you could prove otherwise its likely you’ll be on your own.
Alimony payments vary a lot; they can be long term, short term or even just a lump sum. The basic idea of alimony is to help the lower wage earner into a better financial position. It is usually expected that some money will be used towards completing education or sourcing gainful employment to support you in the future. The basics that alimony is to cover are generally food, shelter, clothing, necessary transport costs and household expenses. Alimony is provided over and above child support payments if there are children involved. However every case is different which is where alimony lawyers step in to help you understand where you stand from a legal prospective.
It is essential that the recipient report their alimony payments as income with the tax department. For this reason lump sum payments are generally not forced or preferred. Most courts will order periodic payments spread over a set period of time or until another hearing is called at a later date. If the paying spouse indicates they will not make periodic payments the court could enforce a lump sum payment to be made.
If the paying spouse refuses to make the required alimony payments then a motion of contempt can be filed with the courts and they will be ordered to pay up. This is again when it is hugely advantageous to have a lawyer working for you; this situation can be too stressful to handle on your own.
There are certain events or situations that can affect your eligibility to receive alimony payments. If either spouse is to die, or the spouse receiving the alimony payments remarries, payments will stop. If the spouse receiving alimony payments is living with someone else they are romantically involved with, they have an increase in income, or the paying spouse retires or becomes unemployed then it’s likely that alimony payments will be modified if not stopped. It is recommended that you keep records of all incoming payments especially if there are infrequencies or irregularities in payments as this may be required if you take a dispute before the court in the future.
Most divorce situations will come to some form of alimony discussions so it is essential that alimony lawyers are involved to protect your future financial stability allowing you to work towards making it on your own.
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