Divorce

In New York State, the standard for a support magistrate ordering support in family court while the couple is still married is if the spouse lacks sufficient income or assets to provide for his or her own reasonable needs. Generally, the support magistrate looks at what the spouse who is seeking support reasonably needs and whether or not s/he can pay for those needs as well as if the other spouse has enough money, or is able to earn enough money, to pay a fair and reasonable amount of spousal support. You can read more about filing for spousal support in family court on the Legal Aid Society’s website and also in this manual from Her Justice, a New York non-profit organization, see page 4.

The factors are different, however, when a spouse files for support as part of a divorce, which is known as maintenance or alimony. In that case, there can be various factors considered such as length of the marriage, the parties’ incomes, etc. and there is a specific formula that the courts will apply to arrive at the amount that a spouse must pay. You can read more about alimony on our website. You can also read more in the Her Justice manual, beginning on page 9, you can find a discussion of maintenance in a divorce (supreme court).

Also, NYS court system has an online calculator where a person can type in his/her income and see what a temporary maintenance agreement may look like as part of a divorce.