Alimony payments are awarded in order for one spouse to provide continued support to the other after the marriage has ended. It is awarded in certain circumstances to ensure that the recipient does not experience a dramatic decline in his or her standard of living as a result of the dissolution of marriage. The length of time that alimony payments must continue to be paid will vary depending on why the alimony is awarded and based on other factors, such as the length of the marriage.
Depending on the particular circumstances, alimony may be awarded on a temporary or permanent/ongoing basis.
Temporary alimony is ordered to be paid during the time period that the supported spouse is seeking education, training, and marketable job skills in order to establish a career or otherwise become self-supportive. Consideration of the responsibility for providing child care during the early years of a minor child factors into this determination. In other words, if the recipient of the alimony just needs a bit of time to get into a position that he or she can provide for himself, then temporary alimony will be awarded to give him that time.
Permanent alimony may be awarded if the supported spouse is of advanced age or suffers from a medical problem that would prevent this spouse from obtaining a career, thus preventing him/her from becoming self-supportive. Even permanent alimony is subject to future modification based upon a material change in circumstances, however. Permanent alimony will also generally end if the recipient gets remarried.
In addition, if there was a long-term marriage (in California, for example, a marriage of ten years or longer is considered a long term marriage), a court may have continuing jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support. With continuing jurisdiction, a court may change the amount or duration of alimony payments from one spouse to the other any time in the future, although a material change in circumstances is usually necessary.
In addition, a court order for alimony typically terminates upon the death or remarriage of the supported spouse. Alimony payments made under pre-2019 divorce agreements are considered to be income for the recipient, which means they are generally taxable. They are also considered a tax-deductible expense for the payor in most situations. However, those rules change starting January 1, 2019 when alimony payments to an ex-spouse will no longer be deductible by the payor and ex-spouses/recipients will no longer have to report the payments as taxable income.
To get help understanding the rules for alimony and for assistance in determining whether alimony may be awarded in your divorce, you should strongly consider speaking with a divorce lawyer for assistance.
Friday 23 March 2018
Monday 8 January 2018
Women should be told if new partner has abusive past, say victims’ groups
An article in The Guardian this weekend informs us that Victim support groups are calling on MPs to back a new law allowing police to take proactive measures to establish whether a serious offender has a new partner, and if so to inform them of his previous convictions. The call comes after the jailing of serial killer Theodore Johnson, 64, who strangled and battered his ex-girlfriend, Angela Best, 51. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years on Friday.
Johnson was first convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after throwing his then wife, Yvonne Johnson, off a ninth-floor balcony in Wolverhampton. In 1992 he strangled a second partner, Yvonne Bennett, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of depression and a personality disorder. He was detained in a psychiatric hospital for just two years before being released back into the community.
He kept his past secret from his partner and was let out by a mental health tribunal in 1997 on condition that he agree to supervision in the community and to alert doctors and social workers if he formed any new relationships, something he repeatedly failed to do.
Johnson’s lawyer, Annette Henry, said the mental health tribunal’s condition on Johnson’s release was flawed as it relied on “self-reporting” any new relationship. “This was a dilemma and the tribunal found it was fraught with difficulty in trying to monitor,” she said.
Johnson is not an isolated case. Liliya Breha, the mother of a five-year-old boy beaten to death by her boyfriend, Marvyn Iheanacho, was never warned by probation officials that he had a history of domestic violence and had once tried to strangle a child.
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims Rights Campaign, which is leading calls for change to the laws on domestic violence disclosure, said he knew of many cases where women were unaware of the violent histories of their partners.
Theodore Johnson pleaded guilty to murdering his former girlfriend. He had previously been convicted of throwing his wife her off a balcony and strangling another former partner.
In 2016, according to the latest figures available, 113 women were killed by men in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – and 90% knew their killer, according to the latest Femicide Census. The British Crime Survey estimates 1.3 million women suffered domestic abuse in the year to March 2016. Over the same period there were just over 100,000 domestic abuse prosecutions.
Under “Clare’s law”, the domestic violence disclosure scheme introduced in 2014, police can inform a woman of a new partner’s past, but this depends on a woman making an inquiry.
“In a number of recent disturbing cases, women entering into new relationships have found out in tragic circumstances that their new partner has previous convictions for violence, even murder,” Fletcher said. “Victims can refer to Clare’s law and ask the police in specific circumstances if the potential partner has any relevant criminal convictions. However, not surprisingly, that power is rarely used.”
Under the new law that Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts hopes to introduce via an amendment to the government’s domestic violence bill, police would be duty bound to create a database holding the convictions and cautions of anyone found guilty of offences including manslaughter, murder, rape or repeated instances of domestic violence or coercive control. Officers could make unannounced visits to offenders, who would face prison if they failed to inform the authorities they were in a new relationship. Police would then have the right to inform the woman of a new partner’s conviction
Johnson was first convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after throwing his then wife, Yvonne Johnson, off a ninth-floor balcony in Wolverhampton. In 1992 he strangled a second partner, Yvonne Bennett, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of depression and a personality disorder. He was detained in a psychiatric hospital for just two years before being released back into the community.
He kept his past secret from his partner and was let out by a mental health tribunal in 1997 on condition that he agree to supervision in the community and to alert doctors and social workers if he formed any new relationships, something he repeatedly failed to do.
Johnson’s lawyer, Annette Henry, said the mental health tribunal’s condition on Johnson’s release was flawed as it relied on “self-reporting” any new relationship. “This was a dilemma and the tribunal found it was fraught with difficulty in trying to monitor,” she said.
Johnson is not an isolated case. Liliya Breha, the mother of a five-year-old boy beaten to death by her boyfriend, Marvyn Iheanacho, was never warned by probation officials that he had a history of domestic violence and had once tried to strangle a child.
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims Rights Campaign, which is leading calls for change to the laws on domestic violence disclosure, said he knew of many cases where women were unaware of the violent histories of their partners.
Theodore Johnson pleaded guilty to murdering his former girlfriend. He had previously been convicted of throwing his wife her off a balcony and strangling another former partner.
In 2016, according to the latest figures available, 113 women were killed by men in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – and 90% knew their killer, according to the latest Femicide Census. The British Crime Survey estimates 1.3 million women suffered domestic abuse in the year to March 2016. Over the same period there were just over 100,000 domestic abuse prosecutions.
Under “Clare’s law”, the domestic violence disclosure scheme introduced in 2014, police can inform a woman of a new partner’s past, but this depends on a woman making an inquiry.
“In a number of recent disturbing cases, women entering into new relationships have found out in tragic circumstances that their new partner has previous convictions for violence, even murder,” Fletcher said. “Victims can refer to Clare’s law and ask the police in specific circumstances if the potential partner has any relevant criminal convictions. However, not surprisingly, that power is rarely used.”
Under the new law that Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts hopes to introduce via an amendment to the government’s domestic violence bill, police would be duty bound to create a database holding the convictions and cautions of anyone found guilty of offences including manslaughter, murder, rape or repeated instances of domestic violence or coercive control. Officers could make unannounced visits to offenders, who would face prison if they failed to inform the authorities they were in a new relationship. Police would then have the right to inform the woman of a new partner’s conviction
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