Spousal maintenance refers to regular payments made by one spouse to another during the pendency of or after divorce. Also known as spousal support or alimony, spousal maintenance is the exception, rather than the rule, in Kentucky divorces. A Kentucky court may grant a maintenance order temporarily—during the divorce proceedings, or sometimes as part of the judgment of divorce if the spouse making the request meets certain legal criteria.
What can you do if your spouse has just told you they want a divorce, and you don’t know how you can pay your bills and support yourself without their income? What can you do if you’ve been paying spousal maintenance for a while now, only to find that your financial situation has drastically changed and you can no longer keep up with payments?
A family law attorney can help if you need to request spousal maintenance in your divorce or if your circumstances have changed and you need to request a modification to a maintenance order.
Berkley Oliver PLLC practices family law in Shelbyville, Kentucky. If you’re facing a divorce, we can help you with issues such as spousal maintenance, division of marital property, and child custody. Contact us today for a consultation to learn how we can help with your situation.
Spousal Maintenance in Kentucky
Kentucky courts don’t usually order spousal maintenance, and when they do, it is usually not intended to be permanent. The types of maintenance a judge may order include:
- Temporary maintenance, lasting only until the divorce becomes final;
- Short-term maintenance while the spouse receiving the payments pursues job training or education; or
- Permanent or long-term maintenance that may continue indefinitely.
Sometimes, the court will initially grant one type of maintenance order and then issue another order later. For instance, a judge may grant you temporary maintenance while the divorce is pending, followed by short-term maintenance so you can pursue job training that will allow you to support yourself.
A Kentucky court is only likely to order long-term maintenance when the spouse requesting support cannot realistically work to support themselves. This may be due to disability, age, or needing to care for a child who cannot be left alone.
How a Court Will Assess a Request for Spousal Maintenance
When a party to a divorce requests spousal maintenance in Kentucky, the court must consider certain statutory factors before granting or awarding any type of maintenance.
Factors the court must consider include:
- The financial resources of the party receiving maintenance
- The time they would need to seek training or education that would enable them to support themselves
- Their standard of living during the marriage
- The length of the marriage
- The age, physical condition, and emotional state of the spouse seeking maintenance
- The other spouse’s ability to support themselves while also making maintenance payments
Terms of the Maintenance Order
In many divorces, the court will divide marital property in such a way that there would be no need for spousal maintenance. If there isn’t enough property to support the person making the request, the court will assess whether they can reasonably support themselves by working or other means. If a court does grant an award of a form of spousal maintenance, it will usually be because:
- The person making the request does not have enough property to provide for their reasonable needs;
- They will not receive enough property to provide for their ongoing needs in the divorce settlement;
- The receiving spouse needs support so that they can complete job training or education so that they can support themselves; or
- They are not able to support themselves by working, or they have custody of a child whose needs require them to stay home without working.
If the court agrees to grant a maintenance order, the terms of the order will specify the amount of the maintenance payments, the frequency of the payments, and the period for which the order will be in effect.
Modifying a Maintenance Order
What happens if you need to modify a maintenance order? According to Kentucky law, the court can only order a modification if your circumstances have changed so substantially as to make the existing order unconscionable. For example, if your income drops severely on an ongoing basis, the court may find that it would be unconscionable to expect you to keep making maintenance payments. An example of this is if the paying spouse becomes severely disabled without the likelihood of improvement.
The court won’t order a modification for a temporary change, so just losing your job will not likely be enough to get the order modified if the court believes you can quickly find an equivalent job.
Typically, a maintenance order is automatically terminated when your former spouse remarries or when either spouse passes away. In some cases, a maintenance order can specify that payments should continue after remarriage or the death of either party, but this is not generally the case.
Contact Our Shelbyville Family Law Attorney Today
Divorce is never easy. Sometimes, you need to talk with someone who will listen compassionately and then do everything they can to help. If you have an issue involving spousal maintenance or any other aspect of divorce law, a skilled Shelbyville family law attorney can make the whole process much more manageable.
Berkley Oliver PLLC serves clients in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and can help you through the challenging divorce process so you can begin your new life. Contact us today for your free case evaluation.