Alimony
Hello, I’m attorney Palmer Johnson. I specialize in family law matters with a particular focus on helping mothers navigate the legal proceedings that affect their families. Today, I’m going to be talking about alimony and what alimony is and what alimony isn’t. So I think a lot of people have an idea that alimony is something that is awarded if they’re significant assets and a big disparity in income and that it can be a significant amount of money for an indefinite period of time.
And in Oklahoma, that is typically not the case. Alimony is going to be short term, it’s going to be rehabilitative or for the purpose of assisting another party who’s potentially, who has an ability to show a need to receive the alimony to have a path forward to their financial future. In other words, you need to have a plan associated with it. Perhaps you gave up your career and you need some additional education to reenter the workforce at the same level that you had when you exited.
Factors to Consider in Alimony Cases
Oftentimes there’s going to have been some opportunity during the marriage that was given up that allowed the other party to continue to earn income and potentially hurt your ability to earn income and it’s an equalizing factor in those situations. There are also certain things that typically will trigger the termination of an alimony award, remarriage, an issue that seems to really agitate the other parties and if it’s agreed to, I think potentially it’s best addressed on the front side is cohabitating with someone while you’re receiving alimony but that you haven’t married. So I think that those are all kind of considerations and things to think about but the biggest thing to know is that alimony is not to punish the other party, it is to equalize the financial footing of the parties.
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In a case where the financial resources are very limited regardless of the other party’s need, the person who would be ordered to pay has got to have the ability to pay. So there could be instances where you have a need but potentially there’s not an ability to pay from the other spouse. These are all specific questions that can be answered in your individual situation after a conversation about where you are, how you got there and where you want to be. If you’re ready to take the next step and have specific questions about how alimony might play out in your divorce, please contact me at moms.law and I look forward to meeting you.