Maryland Divorce Lawyer
A husband or a wife may petition the court for alimony. Temporary alimony, or alimony pendente lite, is alimony pending ligation, which may be awarded to either party in a proceeding for divorce, alimony or annulment of marriage. The only factors that are considered by the Court for pendente lite alimony are the relative financial abilities of the spouses to support themselves. A party seeking pendente lite alimony must show a need for temporary alimony and the other partys ability to pay temporary alimony.
At the final divorce hearing, there are two types of alimony considered by the Court, Rehabilitative Alimony and Indefinite Alimony. Rehabilitative Alimony (also called Statutory Alimony) is alimony for a fixed period of time, granted to help a dependent spouse get to a place where he or she can be self-supporting. Typically, it involves a fixed period of months or years to allow a financially dependant spouse to get reeducation or retraining and reenter the workforce at an entry level job. This kind of alimony supplements the dependant spouses low income while they reenter the workforce and work their way up to a higher paying position.
Indefinite alimony is simply a fixed amount of alimony paid to a spouse without an end date. An end date can be determined by the Court at a later date if there is a material change in circumstances of either party. Indefinite alimony comes into play if the dependant spouse is unable to work or if the dependant spouses maximum level of self-sufficiency is unconscionably below the economically dominant spouses income level.
When considering alimony in an absolute divorce proceedings, the Court is required to consider the following factors:
Ability to be self-supporting, Time needed to educate or train, The standard of living that the parties established during the marriage, The duration of the marriage, The contributions, monetary and non-monetary, of each party to the well-being of the family, The circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties, The age of each party, The physical and mental condition of each party, The ability of the party from whom alimony I sought to meet his or her own needs while meeting the needs of the party seeking alimony, Any agreement between the parties, Financial needs and resources, institutionalized spouse, Other factors for a fair and equitable award.
Unlike child support, which is calculated using a formula to ensure predictability state-wide in each case, alimony is done on a discretionary basis by the judge. This means a trial judge has wide discretion in determining the amount and the length of alimony, or even whether or not alimony is awarded at all.’