Spousal maintenance is a term that covers what clients will refer to alimony, spousal support or spousal maintenance. In New York, the proper term is spousal maintenance.
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We have two types of spousal maintenance in New York; both are defined by statute. The first type is temporary spousal maintenance. Temporary spousal maintenance is the spousal maintenance paid while an action for divorce is pending. We often don’t address that issue in an uncontested divorce because we generally do not have a situation where the parties are in separate households and they are arguing over how bills are going to be paid. We provide a process where there is general agreement on those issues, but that is temporary spousal maintenance.
Permanent spousal maintenance is also based on a statute that defines for the court and for us, what elements we must consider when spousal maintenance is determined. Those elements are general, they’re not specific, there is not a formula so we’ve got to look at the parties respective household budgets and we consider one factor more than others because there is a primary factor in the statute and that is standard of living. The objective of spousal maintenance in New York State, is to maintain each spouse’s standard of living after divorce. Now, that is not always an easy thing to do because when you divide two households, and you might be dividing one income, you really cannot maintain both parties standard of living and that’s why we also look at budget and determine what is possible.
Spousal maintenance in New York is what is called rehabilitative spousal maintenance which means it doesn’t last forever. It is based on a term of years and is designed to provide the spouse who earns less money with a time period where they can get back on their feet, become re-educated or find a job that will allow them to support themselves.
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