(a) It is the intent of the legislature in this article to provide spousal maintenance primarily as a temporary rehabilitative measure for a divorced spouse whose ability for self-support is lacking or has deteriorated through the passage of time while the spouse was engaged in homemaking activities and whose capital assets are insufficient to provide support.
(b) It is the intent of the legislature in this article that spousal support should be terminated in the shortest reasonable time, not to exceed three years, in which the former spouse is able to be employed or to acquire the necessary skills to become self-supporting. Only in circumstances in which the former spouse cannot become self-supporting by reason of incapacitating physical or mental disability should maintenance be extended beyond this period.
This is exactly the way alimony should work -- a temporary rehabilitative measure to allow the spouse (the wife, in most cases) to get back on her feet -- nothing more. The amount is limited to the lesser of $2500 per month or 20% of the spouse' average monthly gross income per month.
Compare this to New Jersey's evil, twisted, bizarre construct in which a spouse (the man, usually) may be required to pay inordinate amounts of money to his ex forever.
This, of course, is the situation I find myself in. The alimony award to my ex-wife is permanent, and it's a significant fraction of my income -- not only of the income I now earn, but of the income I could ever hope to earn.
It's a horrible situation from my standpoint, but, as with everything else thrust upon me by this divorce, something to which I'll have to adapt.
Here's a link to information about alimony in Texas.
4 comments:
I agree with you 110%. . . we were able to prove cohabitation from PRIOR to the final decree of divorce but the ex still gets everything. . . and we were told by our OWN attorney that since we are asking her to "go away" we can't get even 1/2 of the attorney fees & court costs that we had to pay.
Makes 10 years for manslaughter seem pretty reasonable.
Let me clarify my first post. . . I am not condoning manslaughter.
My observation was meant to say that if you commit murder in the State of NJ you can possibly arrange a plea bargain by pleading guilty to manslaughter -- thereby getting a sentence of around 10 years.
BUT, if you commit to a marriage that was either a wrong decision or one that you have "grown out of" you are held to a life sentence. . with very little chance of parole.
That was my comment was meant to convey.
But if there is cohabitation after the divorce is finalized, you should be able to terminate any alimony or "spousal support" that you have to pay -- right?
The only reason we were able to terminate the alimony was because the ex didn't want to have to provide the information on exactly how much her boyfriend supports her. (In her answers she claims poverty; meanwhile she has access to 2 houses & 8 acres of property. . .which is 200% more than what we had when we were married.)
We have accumulated a full copy paper box of documents where we show that the ex is being fully supported in a marriage like relationship in another country.
Court still wouldn't order a plenary we had to go through negotiations. . .which cost us even more money.
Had she not decided to settle it would have depended on the Court as to whether we got out of the alimony fully or not.
And, based on the initial ruling of the Court, they were seeing things in favor of the ex.
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