In any divorce case, you often deal with various issues such as custody, visitation, child support, division of assets, and debts. However, alimony is a significant element, especially in cases involving disparity in income and standard of living.

What is alimony? Alimony is a monthly payment that you may either receive or pay in a divorce case to maintain the same standard of living that you had while married. But how does the court determine the amount and necessity of alimony? This video is dedicated to answering these questions.

Contact Mohajer Law Firm if you are looking for experienced alimony lawyers in Los Angeles. Fill out our online contact form or dial (626) 569-5200 to schedule an initial consultation with one of our certified family law attorneys. We will evaluate your circumstances and guide you through seeking a fair amount of alimony from your spouse.

Transcript:
In any divorce case, you’re going to have to deal with five issues. If you have children, you’re gonna have to deal with custody, visitation, and child support. If you’ve got assets and debts, you’ve got to deal with the division of those. And lastly, you might have to deal with the issue of spousal support, or what’s also considered as alimony.

Now, in my other videos, I’ve talked about many of those topics but specifically in this video, we’re only going to address alimony. But more importantly, we’re going to dive into what is alimony, how the court calculates alimony, as well as what factors the court considers in determining whether to even award it or not.

Hi, I’m Sina Mohajer. I’m a family law attorney practicing in the Greater Los Angeles County since 2012. I’ve been a contributing member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and I’ve been rated by Super Lawyers since 2019.

What is Alimony?

So, what is alimony? Well, alimony is a monthly payment, that you would either receive or pay, in order to maintain the same standard of living that you once had when you were married.

Calculating Alimony: Court’s Method and Considerations

Now, how the court determines how much spousal support or alimony needs to be paid, it depends on where and the pendency of the action you’re in.

If it’s before trial, then it’s considered as a temporary support order, and that’s very easy to calculate. We use the software that you might have heard of in my other videos called DissoMaster, where we input your income as well as your other spouse’s income, and the software generates and lets us know how much spousal support needs to be paid.

Role of Domestic Violence and Earning Capacity in Alimony Awards

Now, the factors the court considers in determining whether to award spousal support is another issue. For example, if there’s some domestic violence and the aggressor is requesting for spousal support, well, the family code is very straightforward on that. An aggressor, after a finding of domestic violence, cannot ask for spousal support.

As well as the earning capacity of the person who’s asking for spouse support, is going to be taken into consideration. If you’ve got a spouse who hasn’t worked for over 10 years during the marriage, because you’ve been making all the money, you’re the breadwinner. Well, once you’re separated, the court expects for that spouse to be able to become self-sustaining, so they have to get a job, whether it’s to advance their education or to get a good paying job or not.

Earning capacity is going to be a huge factor in determining whether spousal support should be awarded or not.

Influence of Marriage Duration on Alimony Decisions

And lastly, it’s going to be the duration of your marriage. If it’s a short-term marriage or a long-term marriage, that’s going to be a huge factor in determining whether to award it or not.

Free Consultation for Your Alimony Case

If you’ve got questions about your case, and you would like to discuss it in more detail, I’ll be happy to offer an initial consultation.