On behalf of The Law Office of Wickersham and Bowers posted in Family Law on Tuesday January 16th, 2023.
Alimony, also known as spousal maintenance or spousal support, is the funds a spouse is obligated to provide to the other spouse after divorce. Alimony is different from child support in many ways. The reason is that you can change the authority of the court over the amount of support you will provide. In the case of child custody, the court can make modifications to the agreement.
Requesting Alimony Modifications After Divorce
There are many situations under which a person may request a modification in alimony. Under certain circumstances, the court accepts the modification. Such circumstances can be due to any financial emergency, bankruptcy, etc. Financial emergencies can be in the form of substantial medical bills that a party has to pay because they are not covered by insurance.
Make sure that if you request a change in spousal support, you must have a legitimate reason for it. If there is no proper evidence behind your request, it will only lead to a waste of money, time, and resources. A simple complaint that you are not receiving enough funds or you suddenly feel like you are paying too much will not convince the court to follow through with the modification.
Apart from that, there are circumstances under which spousal support can be terminated. It is only possible if the receiving spouse starts living with another partner who is providing more than the previous partner. In that case, the dependent spouse no longer needs financial support from the previous spouse.
Another situation under which spousal support can be terminated is if the receiving spouse remarries. The spousal support agreement is immediately removed when the receiving spouse remarries because they are not dependent anymore. An alimony agreement also gets terminated by the court if one of the spouses dies.Change in the alimony agreement can be requested based on two conditions. Either there is a significant change in the income of the giving spouse or a significant change in the needs of the receiving spouse. Either way, proper evidence and a fact-based request are required to convince the court to proceed with the hearings.
