Some marriages just don’t last long. Whatever is the reason for the divorce, there are many questions that arise after you or your spouse make it clear that you want to call it quits.
One of the questions that often comes up in a short-lived marriage is: “if we were married for only a few months, is my spouse still entitled to spousal support?” In other words, how long do you have to be married in Salt Lake City in order to get alimony?
Are you eligible for alimony in short-term marriages?
Awarding alimony is a tricky subject that varies from one case to another, as judges have to consider a wide variety of factors in order to determine the amount of spousal support.
One of the factors is the length of the marriage. In order to assess the amount of alimony that could be awarded in your case – and determine whether or not you or your spouse will be entitled to spousal support – your best option would be to speak to a Salt Lake City alimony attorney.
In Salt Lake City and all across Utah, rehabilitative alimony is the most common type of spousal support. Long term or permanent alimonies, meanwhile, are awarded in rare cases.
The most accurate way to predict whether or not you or your spouse is eligible for alimony is to determine whether or not either of you is financially unstable after a divorce and needs extra money for a specified number of months or years to get back on his/her feet.
Spousal support is NOT awarded if…
Our best alimony attorneys in Salt Lake City at Emy A Cordano, Attorney at Law have outlined three most common scenarios under which a judge will most likely NOT award spousal support:
- The marriage lasted only several months;
- One of the spouses (who would need alimony) never quit his/her job, and therefore doesn’t need an extra cushion to get back on his/her feet;
- There is nothing that prevents the requesting spouse from getting back to work after divorce (he/she doesn’t need to care for children at home, etc.).
Our spousal support lawyers argue that the requesting spouse’s ability to return to his/her employment after the divorce is the biggest factor when it comes to determining whether or not alimony will be awarded.
Is alimony awarded in short-lived marriages?
In Salt Lake City and all across Utah, a judge will consider the length of the marriage in order to calculate alimony and determine whether or not the requesting spouse is entitled to spousal support.
Under Utah spousal support laws, a marriage is considered “long duration” if it lasted 10 years or longer. Meaning: if the couple was married for more than a decade, the alimony may be awarded for an extended period of time.
For couples that were married for less than 10 years, alimony may be awarded to the requesting spouse for a period equal to one-half the length of the marriage. Meaning: if a marriage lasted two years, spousal support will be ordered to be paid for a year.
In some cases, a spouse is required to pay spousal support until the requesting spouse’s death or remarriage. Also, the recipient will no longer be entitled to alimony if he/she moves in with a new boyfriend or girlfriend.
Therefore, our Salt Lake City alimony attorney explains that it is possible to receive alimony even in short-term marriages, but only if the recipient needs an extra cushion to get back to work.
In order to pursue a fair spousal support arrangement, it’s vital to speak to an alimony lawyer no matter if you’re the recipient or the spouse who will be ordered to pay alimony.
Contact our attorneys at Emy A Cordano, Attorney at Law to get a legal consultation and find out your best course of action in your particular case. Call our Salt Lake City offices at (801) 901-8159 or fill out this contact form.