MARYLAND JUDICIARY CASE SEARCH MARRIAGE FULL
See below for a full list of the factors. Your age, physical and mental health AND.Your financial situation during the marriage, now and in the future.The court will consider a long list of factors in deciding if you or your spouse should get alimony. 118 (2010) Factors the Court Will Consider This may happen if one of the ex-spouses asks the court to consider the alimony amount in the future and circumstances have changed. Alimony awards may be modified, extended, or changed or ended in the future. "Unconscionably disparate" means that there is a very large and unfair difference between your living standards. You may receive indefinite alimony if (because of your age, an illness, or a disability) you cannot (1) make reasonable progress toward supporting yourself or (2) even if you can make reasonable progress your ex-spouse’s standard of living is "unconscionably disparate" from yours. Indefinite alimony - This is a relatively rare type of alimony awarded with no specific end point. While results will vary based on your individual circumstances, a good range for you to use in this estimate is an average of 3-10 years of rehabilitative alimony (if your situation matches the criteria). For example, a court may award you rehabilitative alimony for the two years that it takes you to go back to school and finish a degree program that will enable you to better support yourself. Usually it is associated with a time-limited goal such as going back to school. Rehabilitative alimony - This is the type of alimony most likely to be awarded. It does not necessarily mean that you will be awarded alimony after the divorce if there is a finding of need. The purpose of this type of alimony is to maintain the status quo during the divorce. Code, Family Law § 11-101(b)Īlimony pendente lite - A court can award this type of alimony between the time you file for divorce (and make a request for alimony) and the time the divorce is final. For example, the court will only award a periodic monetary payment however, an agreement between the divorcing spouses may cover payment of a mortgage or other type of support.Īs a result of Maryland’s equal rights amendment either a husband or a wife in a marriage may be required by the court to pay alimony.
An agreement between spouses can be broader than what the court might decide if asked to award alimony on its own. This means that the court will not be able to change the agreement as part of your divorce. If you signed an agreement about alimony, the court is likely to be bound by that agreement. The Maryland Court of Appeals has noted "he longstanding rule in Maryland… that the right to claim alimony is extinguished at the time of the severance of the marital relationship." Failure to make a claim for alimony as part of a divorce means that you cannot come back later after the marriage has ended and start an alimony claim.
Generally, alimony can be awarded only before the final ending of the marriage. If alimony is awarded, it is usually “rehabilitative alimony” for a certain period of time to allow a dependent spouse to become self-supporting. Alimony's purpose is to provide an opportunity for the recipient spouse to become self-supporting. Factors the court will consider in alimony decisionsĪlimony is a periodic payment by one former spouse to the other.