Alimony and Spousal Maintenance in Pensacola Florida
Pensacola FL Divorce Lawyers – Family Law Attorneys
The payment that is sometimes made by one former spouse to the other after they are divorced has traditionally been known as alimony, but these days the terms spousal support and spousal maintenance are alternately used. The subject is covered in Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes, and the law formally refers to this payment as spousal support. Back in the days when the vast majority of families were headed by a husband who acted as the sole breadwinner and a wife who filled the role of homemaker, this was a payment made by the man to the women. However, spousal support can technically be paid by either party to the other depending on the specifics of the case, but even today when it is paid it is usually paid by the former husband to his ex-wife.
The state does not proceed from the standpoint that spousal support is a given. Each individual is expected to be self supporting and the matter of possible spousal support is decided on a case-by-case basis. For the purposes of identification, the individual who is seeking the payments is deemed the “dependent” spouse, and the person who would be making the payments is referred to as the “supporting” spouse. Spousal support can be permanent, which is exactly what it sounds like, or rehabilitative. Rehabilitative spousal support would involve temporary payments intended to help the dependent spouse get by while he or she was obtaining the education or training necessary to reenter the workforce and become financially self sufficient.
It should be mentioned that a divorcing couple can agree to a privately constructed spousal support arrangement, but if they do the court may have no jurisdiction to hear an action for modification of spousal support in the future should the financial circumstances of one or both of the parties change.
For more information about alimony and spousal maintenance, get in touch with a Pensacola family lawyer to arrange for a free consultation.
