If you include language in your contract allowing the court to modify support in the future, then it can, otherwise the support amount, and the duration of the award, is fixed and unchangeable. Note, however, the court will enforce it precisely. If, in a pre-marital agreement, marital agreement, property settlement agreement, or any other contract with your spouse you reached an agreement regarding spousal support, the court will enforce that agreement.
This means they are asking the court to award them temporary spousal support while the litigation is pending - and the law for setting spousal support then is different too!Ĭontractual spousal support is probably the easiest of these topics to cover. To add even more complications to this issue, in case one party really needs support right now, while the above cases are pending that party can file a Motion for Pendente Lite Relief. Spousal support can be awarded as part of a divorce in a Circuit Court case, as a result of a Decree of Separate Maintenance in a Circuit Court case, as a result of a Petition for Spousal Support in the Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court, or as a result of a contract (either pre-marital or marital - see my post on pre-marital agreements for the distinction). To start off, it's worth noting that there are four unique situations in which spousal support can be awarded, and the law between them varies anywhere from minimally to widely. Fortunately, there is a little bit of law to help us out, but it's still very hard to come away from the law with an understanding of what any given case will result with.įour Different Spousal Support Situations
This means spousal support is largely left to the discretion of the judge - and different judges will vary their opinions widely. Unlike child support, you can't just put the parties' incomes and a few other factors into a formula and churn out an answer (although there are some minor exceptions to this that I will cover). Perhaps the biggest complication with spousal support is that there are generally no "guidelines" for determining the amount. Unfortunately, the answer I always have to give, as is so often the case, is "it depends." However, the "it depends" is even worse when it comes to spousal support (which is what we now call "alimony" since the roots of the word "alimony" imply that it is only paid by a man to a woman, while legally it can go either way now). When I have an initial consultation with someone about a divorce, if they make more money than their spouse, the first question I usually get is "how much alimony am I going to have to pay?" I'll get the reverse question if my consult is with the spouse who makes less.
Please see my 20 Relevant Changes in the Law post for details. Update: Some of the information in the below blog post is now outdated due to changes in the law. As always, the legal principles discussed in this blog post are applicable only to the Commonwealth of Virginia. As always, please review my disclaimer before reading this post by following the link above or by clicking on this link.
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