What is spousal support?
You can ask for spousal or partner support to be paid while your court case is proceeding. This is called a temporary spousal support order or a temporary partner support order. Marin County has a formula for calculating the amount of a temporary spousal or partner support order. FACLC can prepare the Requests for Order to help a client ask the court to hear the case and determine temporary spousal support
Permanent spousal or partner support is for support ordered after the conclusion of your divorce case. There are a number of factors that determine whether a party is eligible for spousal or partner support. FACLC can discuss the options and likelihood of a permanent support order part o your dissolution case.
How is spousal support determined?
The judge will not use a formula to determine how much spousal or partner support to order at the end of your case, called the final judgment. When the judge makes the final order, the judge must consider these factors in the California Family Code:
- Length of the marriage or domestic partnership
- What each person needs
- What each person pays or can pay (including earnings and earning capacity)
- If having a job would make it too hard to take care of children
- Age and health of both people
- Debts and property
- If one spouse or domestic partner helped the other get an education, training, career, or professional license
- If there was domestic violence in the marriage or domestic partnership
- If one spouse's, or domestic partner's, career was affected by unemployment, or by taking care of children or a home
- Tax impact of spousal support (federal and state tax laws have not changed to recognize domestic partnerships).