Los Angeles Attorney Handling Spousal Support
Serving Los Angeles & Orange County areas, including Lakewood ▪ Norwalk ▪ Carson
In California, a marriage that lasted less than ten years is considered a "short-term marriage," and spousal support in the event of divorce may also be short term — or not called for at all. On the other hand, if spouses have been together in a long-term marriage of 10 years or more and one spouse is financially dependent on the other, spousal maintenance or alimony may be ordered for a lifetime — or until the dependent spouse remarries.
Contact a California family law attorney at the Advocacy Law Center, APC to schedule a free phone consultation regarding any aspect of your divorce, including spousal support.
Unlike child support, spousal support is not determined on the basis of strict formulas. However, similar factors are taken into account when a court approves or issues a spousal support order: namely, the available income of each person.
The court expects each person to earn what he or she is capable of earning from the time of separation onward. If both parties have the ability to be self-supporting, spousal support may be minimal or not applicable. However, if one spouse was dependent on the other during a long-term marriage, spousal support may be called for, on a temporary, rehabilitative or permanent basis.
Deliberately earning less than what one is able to earn in order to avoid paying spousal support is not acceptable to the courts. The courts will not allow you to walk away from your legal obligation to support your ex-spouse, appropriately to the length of the marriage and your respective incomes. Legal strategies for ensuring that you do not pay more spousal support than you should, or that you receive the spousal support you are entitled to, may include the following:
- Vocational evaluation of one or both parties
- Evaluation of health issues that may preclude a person from working full time or working at a high-stress occupation
- Economic considerations (for example, when an entire industry — such as the mortgage industry — is in a state of recession, a spouse's earning capacity may change beyond his or her ability to control the decline in income)
- Age of the spouses (when the payer spouse reaches the age of retirement, spousal support may cease to apply).
Contact the Advocacy Law Center, APC, to schedule a free phone consultation regarding spousal support or any aspect of a California divorce. Credit cards are accepted.
Se habla español. Nihongo o hanishimasu. 
