Bronx Temporary Alimony

Even for the most amicable of divorcing couples, in many cases it can seem that the process drags on and on. Property must be categorized as marital or separate and assigned a value. Child custody, visitation and support must be hammered out. Alimony amount and duration must be discussed. Divorce is a particularly complicated process for couples with extensive holdings, but even the divorce of an average income couples can take months. In cases where alimony is appropriate, it would often be an extreme hardship to have to wait until the divorce is finalized for alimony to be granted. Temporary alimony answers this need. After the divorce petition is filed, a spouse can file for temporary alimony which will help to support them during the process of the divorce. To be sure you get enough to live on during divorce proceedings, or to avoid overpaying if you are the payer, you will want to consult with a Bronx temporary alimony lawyer before the divorce is filed.

If it were not for temporary alimony, it might be almost impossible for some to seek a divorce due to financial constraints. While the divorce process continues, temporary alimony can enable a payee spouse to meet rent or mortgage payments, avoid having their car repossessed, pay medical insurance and medical costs, pay their divorce lawyer fees, and buy food and clothing. When the divorce is final, a judge may continue the same alimony amount in the final divorce decree, change the amount or stop alimony all together if the payee spouse has become self-sufficient.

In order for you to get temporary alimony, your lawyer must file a motion in the appropriate Bronx court near you. A judge will not pursue this on their own. The proceedings are normally very simple, with the court usually making a decision solely on the basis of the motion your attorney submits and its attachments. These attachments primarily consist of proof of income and net worth. Length of the marriage is also a factor. Of course, if you signed a prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement with your spouse that covered temporary alimony, a judge will normally follow those terms unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.

When calculating temporary alimony, a judge will start with a calculation laid out in revised Domestic Relations Law 236B (5-a). This is true in the Bronx and throughout the state of New York. The calculation is based on the respective incomes of the parties including benefits, and deductions are allowed. There are actually two different calculations, depending on whether or not child support is being paid. Both of these formulas have an income cap on the payer spouse’s income. At the time of this writing it is $178,000, but that amount is adjusted periodically as the consumer price index changes. Should the payer spouse make more money than the current income cap, the judge will definitely want to take specific other factors into consideration as laid out by New York statute. But even if the payer makes less than the cap, the judge can consider these additional factors. There are a number of them, and they include, among other things, age, health, earning capacity, need for the payee spouse to return to school, whether or not one of the parties has been wasting or hiding assets, whether the payee spouse suffers diminished earning capacity due to years of taking care of the family at home, standard of living during the marriage and more. The judge, in fact, can consider anything else they find to be just and proper, and it is up to your attorney to bring these to the judge’s attention.

Temporary alimony makes divorce possible for a spouse who would not be able to support themselves during the course of the divorce proceedings were it not available. Alimony of any kind is often a source of contention for divorcing couples, and you do not want to risk your ability to make ends meet if you are the payee spouse or overpay if you are the payer spouse. You need a good Bronx lawyer to guide you through the temporary alimony process. Though there is a calculation involved, the judge will consider a number of factors, and an experienced divorce attorney can make sure the judge understands all of them. The attorneys at Stephen Bilkis and Associates have years of experience successfully representing clients in who are seeking divorces or legal separations. In addition, we are also experienced in handling cases related to child custody, orders of protection, and domestic violence. Contact us at 800.696.9529 to schedule a free, no obligation consultation regarding your case. We represent clients in the following locations: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan, Nassau County, Queens, Staten Island, Suffolk County and Westchester County.