Child and Spousal Support

There are two different kinds of spousal support. The first kind is support that a spouse is entitled to during the pendency of the family law proceedings, called pendente lite or temporary spousal support. The other kind is called permanent or long-term spousal support. Permanent in this context does not mean that it lasts forever. It means that it is ordered concurrently with a Judgment, usually of dissolution of marriage or domestic partnership.

With respect to temporary spousal support, it is generally calculated according to a formula taking into account the incomes of the parties. If the parties have children, child support will be taken into account when calculating for spousal support. This is a calculation that takes into account income from all sources, whether it be community or separate.

The duration of the marriage is of primary importance when the court determines a spouse’s entitlement to spousal support. Generally speaking, for marriages under ten years in duration, a spouse is entitled to support for half of the length of the marriage. For marriages greater than ten years in duration, however, the court will maintain jurisdiction over a party’s right to seek spousal support for an extended period of time, often until the payee spouse reaches retirement age, or even longer in certain situations.

While temporary support is often formulaic, the court still has discretion over the amount and duration. In the case of long-term spousal (or post-Judgment) spousal support, the court must take into consideration a number of different statutory factors, codified in the California Family Code. One important factor that we will closely examine is the marital standard of living, or the lifestyle of the parties during the marriage. This includes things like the type of house you live in, car you drive, how often and where you go on vacation, whether children attend private school, and how much money parties are able to set aside for savings and investments. The marital standard of living often functions to set a cap on support. So, when the court orders a spousal support payment, the order should come as close as possible to bringing the supported spouse to the marital standard of living, without exceeding the marital standard of living. Let’s suppose that, after separation, one party starts a company that is acquired and goes public, and that spouse earns a windfall well above her/his earnings during the marriage. While the supported spouse may desire to increase the support they receive based on their former spouse’s new income, the law does not favor increasing a support obligation such that it exceeds the parties’ marital standard of living. Thus, the marital standard of living functions as a cap on an obligation to pay/entitlement to receive spousal support.

The purpose of spousal support is to provide a bridge sto create parity and ensure that the out-spouse and land on her/his feet until they are self-supporting. To that end, assuming things like age, health, or the necessity to care for very young children are not obstacles, the court will often require a spouse who has been out of the workforce during the marriage (as a result of their domestic responsibilities or for other reasons) to make significant efforts towards becoming self-supporting. If a party refuses to make efforts to become self-supporting, the court will sometimes impute income to that spouse. While no one can be physically forced to work, a spouse who is able to work and who has work available but chooses not to can sometimes be charged as if that spouse is working, for the purposes of determining the proper amount and duration of support. With some exceptions, the policy of the state is to provide a non-working spouse time to retrain and get back on their feet and get back into the workforce, with the ultimate goal of becoming self-supporting within a reasonable period of time.