Alimony Lawyer in North Carolina for Your Case

Alimony vs. Post-Separation Support

Spousal support is a critical component in many divorce cases, given that it can determine the financial obligations and financial future for divorcing spouses for years to come. In North Carolina, spousal support is comprised of both post-separation support and alimony. Post-separation support is temporary support paid by one spouse during the pendency of a case, which is often referred to as temporary alimony. In other words, post-separation support is more of a stopgap measure and is not intended to last forever. The other form of spousal support is alimony, which is sometimes referred to as permanent alimony, given that it is often much longer-term in nature. While alimony is not generally truly permanent in that it is not generally ordered forever, it is often intended to address a spouse’s needs for years following a separation.

Determining Alimony

While alimony is a discretionary determination in the divorce process, North Carolina law establishes numerous factors to consider in each case when making an ultimate decision. The factors Courts consider vary from case to case but generally include a consideration of each spouse’s earning capacity and future earning capacity, each party’s reasonable financial needs, and a range of other considerations, such as the actions and inactions of parties, including marital misconduct.

Income and Expenses

The most important consideration in every alimony case is the income and expenses of the parties, which includes a review of their accustomed standard of living. As a threshold matter, before ordering alimony, a Court must first find that the party seeking alimony is a dependent spouse and the other spouse is a supporting spouse. This generally involves a review of the finances of both the party requesting alimony and the party from whom alimony is sought.

As part of your spousal support case, one of our experienced spousal support lawyers will work with you to prepare a budget that takes into consideration your net income as well as your reasonable expenses per your own standard of living. Ultimately, the amount of any shortfall in a dependent spouse’s budget and any surplus in a supporting spouse’s budget will play a large role in shaping the total amount of alimony owed.

Alimony Factors

Determining the amount and duration of alimony also requires reviewing various additional factors other than each spouse’s income and expenses. According to North Carolina law, Judges in family court can review factors such as the ages and health status of parties, the duration of the marriage, the standard of living established during the marriage, the contributions of either spouse to the career of another spouse, the contributions of a spouse who remained at home, the financial circumstances of the parties including their assets and debts, the education and training of each spouse, the employment history of the parties, the tax consequences of alimony, and additional factors including marital misconduct. Ultimately, every alimony case is different given the varying factors, and thus it is important to speak with your attorney about what circumstances might impact alimony in your case.

Marital Misconduct

One of the most discussed factors in alimony cases is marital misconduct. When determining the amount of financial support paid and the duration of alimony, a Judge may consider the misconduct of both the paying spouse and the receiving spouse. In general, marital misconduct includes abandonment, reckless spending, alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence, general poor treatment, which causes emotional stress, and adultery. A judge has the authority to both increase or decrease the amount and duration of alimony depending on how they weigh these factors.

Adultery

Among the different forms of marital misconduct, none has nearly as large an impact as adultery. Under North Carolina law, a supporting spouse who commits adultery will generally be required to pay alimony, whereas a receiving spouse who commits adultery will generally be prohibited from receiving alimony altogether. However, before adultery can have such a large impact on a case, it must be proven by the party seeking to prove that the other party committed adultery. If you are contemplating separating and seeking a divorce, it is critical to speak with a spousal support lawyer as soon as possible in the divorce process to determine how any adultery may need to be addressed in your case. When you work with our firm, one of our attorneys will be able to discuss what early steps you might need to pursue, including the hiring of a private investigator.

Duration of Alimony

The duration of alimony varies widely from family to family. The duration of alimony will generally depend on the factors addressed above, but will especially consider the length of the marriage. While there are no set guidelines for how long alimony must be paid, depending on the duration of the marriage, your attorney can discuss some general rules of thumb that help provide guidance on how long you can expect to receive or pay alimony.

Regardless of the total number of months or years of alimony ordered or agreed upon in a settlement agreement, certain terminating factors do apply for alimony in most cases. Generally speaking, alimony payments will terminate prior to the total duration ordered or agreed upon in the event either party passes away, if a recipient spouse cohabitates, or if that same spouse remarries. While situations such as the remarriage of a recipient spouse are pretty clear-cut grounds for termination of alimony, determining cohabitation requires a much more in-depth review of the circumstances of your case.

Whether a spouse has cohabited and thus alimony should be terminated is often an area of dispute in divorce cases. While North Carolina law does provide guidance on what constitutes cohabitation, including parties generally residing together and being in a committed relationship, the law is also clear that cohabitation is a case-by-case determination that necessarily requires a review of the unique facts of every case. Our team of family law attorneys has dealt with all types of cohabitation cases, which allows us to provide advice as to what to expect and how to approach your situation. In the event you are seeking to prove cohabitation, we can work with you from the outset to determine what steps you’ll need to take, including likely working with a private investigator along the way.

Finding the right alimony lawyer depends on several important factors. First and foremost, you need to be comfortable with the attorney you retain. You are going to make decisions in your alimony case that will have a large impact on your ability to meet your current financial needs as well as your financial future. At our firm, we will schedule an initial consultation for you with one of our attorneys, not only so that you can meet with them to learn your legal rights and form a plan for your case, but also so you can make sure we are the right fit for your case.

An important part of the consultation is speaking with your attorney about the approach you believe you’d like to take and the advice your case will need. While some situations are best served by negotiating alimony outside of court, other matters may require strong advocacy in court.

Given that alimony is largely a financial consideration, another crucial conversation that you should have with your attorney at every stage of the case is how the costs of taking any sort of action weigh against the benefits of doing so. Oftentimes, it may be that you have a legal avenue we can pursue, but the costs of doing so might outweigh the benefits of taking action. The choice is always yours to make, but it is important to have conversations with your lawyer throughout your case about these sorts of considerations. At Miller Cushing Holladay, we always make it a priority to have these types of cost-benefit conversations with our clients since we think doing so is an important part of having an open and well-informed relationship with our clients.