Alimony & Spousal Support Definition

Alimony, sometimes called spousal support, may be awarded when it is determined that one spouse  earns significantly more income than the other spouse and/or has earned a degree or obtained education that would earn additional income.  

For example; John, 52, and Mary, 50, have been married for 18 years and have decided to divorce.  were married for twenty-two years before deciding to divorce. Mary spent most of the marriage at home raising the children.  She have been working for the last few years but Bob earns $100,000 a year and Mary only earns $36,000.  Bob also has earned a Masters Degree during the marriage. 

In this example the court may order John to pay Mary monthly, or a lump sum, spousal support. The number and amount of payments would be determined by the judge. The overwhelming majority of all alimony awards are from the husband to the wife, but the United States Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional for a state’s law to only allow payments a wife. alimony payments only to the wife; payments to the husband must be permissible too.

Illinois Appellate Court Rules Spousal Support Should Be Permanent

Here are the facts of the case. A wife and husband, both fifty years of age, had been married for twenty-nine years. During the first years of the marriage, the wife worked as a high school teacher. The wife left her job as a teacher to care for the couples four children.  The husband worked throughout the marriage, and, at the time of divorce, earned $77,000 per year.  The children had left the home and the wife had resumed teaching three prior to the filing of the divorce.  The wife earned a salary of $30,000 per year.

On these facts, the Illinois Appellate Court held that the wife was entitled to permanent spousal support in the amount of $600 per month. The court said: “Marriage is a partnership, not only morally, but financially. Spouses are coequals, and homemaker services must be recognized as significant when the economic incidents of divorce are determined. The [wife] should not be penalized for having performed her assignment under the agreed-upon division of labor within the family.” The court felt her Her salary would have been significantly higher, and she would have had increased retirement benefits had she continued working full-time as a teacher during the marriage.

"Best Interest" of the Child

If a court is asked to decide whether a parent should be awarded primary custody the court will need to determine if that would be in the "best interest" of your child.  In order to determine this subjective standard, the court will attempt to decide whether awarding primary custody  would meet the child's physical, educational, educational, spiritual, emotional, and financial needs more so than if joint custody was awarded.  There only on a few issues such as domestic violence, criminal record, drug use, etc. that would make this an easy decision for the judge.