Family Law
Maintenance/Spousal Support & Property Division
Every divorce includes an allocation of property that has been accumulated during the marriage. While the concept of alimony, now known as maintenance, sounds outdated, the fact is that there are still many marriage relationships where one spouse provides for the support of the other. In those arrangements, it is only proper that the courts, if not the couple themselves, find some way to provide for a continuation of that support for some period of time after the marriage ends. Whether or not this maintenance is ordered depends on a number of factors including:
- The length of the marriage
- The age of each spouse
- The health of each spouse
- The ability of each spouse to be self-supporting
- The income of the primary breadwinner
- The standard of living the parties enjoyed during the marriage
Whether or not one spouse receives maintenance payments from the other is only one issue decided in a divorce action. Equally important as what happens to the property that has been accumulated during the course of the marriage. There are varying situations such as joint business ventures. Other couples have based the professional progress of one spouse on the other spouse's willingness to put their career on hold. These financial trade-offs all get sorted out over the course of a marriage; but when the marriage is over, one spouse finds themselves without pension benefits, without savings and without business assets from which they can earn money to provide for themselves. At RIZZO & DIERSEN, we have come into play to ensure a fair and reasonable division of these assets.