|
"Alimony" is a periodic allowance or money paid by a spouse for the maintenance of the other spouse, payable under a judicial decree, which terminates upon the death of either spouse or upon the remarriage of the spouse receiving the payments or upon the reconciliation and cohabitation of the parties. Alimony is never a punitive measure.
Pendente Lite Alimony is temorary maintenance paid to a spouse to allow them to sustain themselves during the litigation and terminates at the end of the litigation.
Permanent or Indefinite Alimony is a award providing for periodic payment of money at predetermined intervals for an indefinite period of time. Permanent alimony will be awarded only where due to age, illness or disability, the party seeking alimony cannot reasonably be expected to be self-supporting or even after the party seeking support has made as much progress as possible, the respective living standards of the parties will be unconscionably disproportionate.
Rehabilitative Alimony permits the economically dependent spouse to become self-supporting, and is the favored form of alimony
1. Ability of seeking party to be wholly or partly self-supporting.
2. Time necessary to gain sufficient education or training to enable a party to find suitable employment
3. Standard of living during the marriage
4. Duration of the marriage
5. The contributions, monetary and non-monetary, of each party to the well-being of the family.
6. Circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties
7. Age of each party
8. Physical and mental condition of each party
9. The ability of the party from whom the alimony is sought to meet the party's needs while seeking alimony
10. Any agreement between the parties regarding alimony
11. Financial needs and resources of each party
12.
Whether the award would cause a spouse to become eligible for medical assistance
|
