Spousal support or alimony as its popularly known is the amount of money paid to the partner earning less money. From its name, the money is paid to cater for the expenses of the other partner. If you have just divorced or are considering divorcing your partner, there are a number of things you should know about alimony. These things include:

Any partner can get spousal support

Many people believe that only women can be given alimony but this isn’t the case. According to alimony attorneys, you can be given the support whether you are a man or woman. All you need to do is prove that you deserve it.

For the court to decide to give you the support, it considers plenty of factors such as: your earning capability, the length of marriage, your contribution to the marriage, and many other factors. To save money, you should avoid dragging each other to court. The easiest and fastest way of going about it is discussing with your partner and agreeing on an amount that is ideal for both of you. To make the agreement legal, you should have it signed by a certified family lawyer.

You can change and even end the alimony payments

If you ask many people, they will tell you that alimony payments are forever. Far from this. You can make alterations to them (either reduce or increase them) and even stop paying altogether. If your former spouse is at a better financial position you should file to have your alimony payments reduced. You should also file for a reduction if you lost your job or got demoted. If your partner was supporting children and they have grown and moved out of the house, you should ask the court to reduce the spousal support payments as he/she no longer needs a lot of money.

To make the changes you should work with your family attorney and gather evidence to prove the changes in the earnings. You should then go ahead and fill out the necessary court forms. When it comes to stopping making the payments, you can stop doing so if your partner is living with another person in a romantic relationship or gets married.

Conclusion

This is what you need to know about alimony. To have an easy time through the divorce process and even when applying for alimony, you should work closely with an experienced spousal support lawyer. The professional will not only help you with the filing of the divorce papers, but also help you with contesting for divorce.