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Spousal Maintenance and the Options

On average, there are more than 35,000 divorces and annulments each year in Pennsylvania. That results in thousands of new people annually who may be entitled to some form of spousal support. In this state, there’s no entitlement, and whether a person receives support is solely up to the discretion of the court.

Is Alimony Limited to Women?

No, it is not. Whether a person is or is not entitled to support is not based on gender. While alimony has traditionally been money paid from an ex-husband to an ex-wife, this is an outdated notion. Men can receive support from women, and support applies to same-sex marriages as well. Statistically, men are less likely to receive support, and there may be many reasons for this, including:

• Traditional gender stereotypes
• Women being more willing to contest it
• Judges influenced by unconscious biases

Can a Prenuptial Agreement Affect Postmarital Support?

If a state allows a prenuptial agreement to dictate spousal support or allow the right to such support to be waived, then yes. In these instances, entitlement – or lack of – is dictated by the contract that both parties have agreed to, and judges are unlikely to overrule that without extenuating circumstances.

What Is Rehabilitative Support?

Rehabilitative support is also called durational support, which means that payments are made for a certain period. Often, a judge will determine that one spouse is not required to maintain the other’s lifestyle forever but just long enough for that person to become self-sufficient up to that level. This kind of support is also often awarded to stay-at-home parents, and the duration of such cases is often until the youngest child becomes 18 years old. Just because support has a termination date doesn’t necessarily mean it ends then. The decision can still be reviewed and amended by the courts.

What Is Permanent Support?

Permanent support is when one spouse pays spousal support until he/she or the other spouse passes. Awarding permanent support means that the judge deemed that one spouse is responsible for maintaining the other’s lifestyle forever. This is often reserved for marriages longer than seven years and when a spouse played a considerable role in helping the other achieve his/her success. It’s possible for permanent support to be terminated or suspended, such as when the spouse receiving support marries or even cohabitates with another.

What Is Lump-Sum Support?

Lump-sum support is a fixed amount paid from one spouse to the other, and it usually has no restrictions regarding situation, such as remarriage, cohabitation or self-sufficiency. Such agreements and decisions are often in lieu of a property settlement. Lump-sum support can also be used to ensure that a certain amount of money is paid to a spouse’s estate after his/her passing.

What Is Temporary Support?

Although rehabilitative or durational support is temporary in a sense, it’s not the same thing as temporary spouse maintenance. Such support is common when a couple separates on a trial basis or have separated but not yet finalized the process. Such support can be an agreement made between the spouses and not involving the courts at all. If the agreement is filed in court, a judge will determine if the agreement is fair and may adjust it as he/she sees fit.

Are There Tax Ramifications?

Yes. The U.S. federal government views spouse maintenance as income. The spouse paying that income is therefore generally allowed to use that payment as a deduction. The spouse receiving that income, on the other hand, must pay income taxes as with any other source of income earned.

Get the Legal Assistance You Need Today

If you’re faced with the prospect of paying or receiving spousal maintenance due to a separation or divorce, assistance from an attorney that focuses on Pennsylvania family law can make a big difference. Joanne Kleiner & Associates has handled many such cases, so contact us today online or by calling our office in Jenkintown at (215) 886-1266.

Collaboration and the Future of Divorce

The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals is a community of legal, financial, mental health and other professionals committed to utilizing a collaborative approach to conflict resolution. The IACP now comprises thousands of attorneys who focus on collaborative law. The organization predicts that collaboration will become the default approach to divorce in the U.S. as it becomes more accessible and gains more visibility.

What Is Collaborative Law?

This type of law essentially is a more structured approach to mediation. Each party has his or her own representation, and those representatives work with the parties to assemble a support team. That team assists the parties in moving toward the desired resolution in a manner that serves everyone well. In the domain of divorce, it is a means through which a married couple can separate legally without the involvement of the court in a way that has the children’s and each other’s best interests in mind. The support team for a collaborative divorce will include legal representation, but it can also include:

• Tax experts
• Social workers
• Child specialists
• Financial advisors
• Real estate evaluators
• Mental health professionals

Benefits of the Collaborative Approach

Collaborative divorces are suitable for opposite- and same-sex couples, and they can be particularly desirable in the latter due to the additional challenges often present in same-sex divorces. This process involves a team working together to achieve the best possible resolution for everyone involved. That may sound like it requires a lot of money, but the reality is that litigation is quite expensive and often costs much more than collaboration no matter how diverse the support team. The collaborative process does require that everyone be present, involved and committed to working together. When those conditions are met, there are many ways that this process can be beneficial. Some of the additional advantages of collaborative divorces include:

• The ability to preserve relationships
• Cheaper costs and less time
• Lack of court-imposed deadlines
• Resolutions remain private
• An emphasis on areas of mutual benefit
• Agreements made in a forward-focused manner

Collaboration Versus Mediation

Both collaboration and mediation provide a non-adversarial vehicle for divorce. Collaboration is often viewed as a more structured form of mediation. Mediation, therefore, can be viewed as providing more flexibility. After all, it only requires three parties: an attorney and the divorcing couple. That structure, however, provides many benefits, such as having a mental health professional ensure that the couple and the children are going through this process in a manner that is healthy for them now and also over the long term. Perhaps another way to appreciate the difference is that mediation focuses on the efforts of the mediator while collaboration focuses on the efforts of the couple.

Collaboration Is Not Necessarily Easier

When it comes to divorce, teamwork generally produces more productive results. IACP statistics show that most collaborations conclude in under nine months while cases involving mediation and/or litigation take much longer on average. That does not mean that collaboration is easy. A collaborative divorce can require a lot of hard work. Nevertheless, that hard work is channeled in a positive way toward establishing the basis for everyone involved to have healthy relationships post-divorce.

The Future of Collaboration

Collaboration has achieved so much success in domestic relations in recent years that there has been a movement to apply these concepts in other domains. The U.S. government has started to train federal employees in this field, and other legal areas where this is being explored as an alternative dispute resolution tactic include probate and real estate.

Explore a Collaborative Approach Today

If you and your partner have decided to separate or divorce, then collaborative law can give you control and provide the tools and resources to move forward in a happy and healthy manner. At Joanne Kleiner & Associates, we focus on Pennsylvania family and divorce law and have helped many couples achieve a mutually beneficial resolution. Contact us online, or call our office in Jenkintown at (215) 886-1266 today to set up a consultation.

Shielding Your Children From the Impact of Divorce in Pennsylvania

Approximately 10 percent of all marriages in Pennsylvania end in divorce, and if yours is among them, one of the hardest aspects will probably be telling your children. In order to minimize the emotional trauma your son or daughter is likely to feel when you make this announcement, it’s important to deal with the legal issues surrounding your marital dissolution as amicably as possible under the circumstances. An experienced Jenkintown divorce lawyer can help you negotiate the custody agreement, visitation schedule and child support obligations that are right for you and your family.

Issues That Should Be Addressed

Very few couples arrive at the decision to divorce without a great deal of deliberation. Here are the four main legal issues that need to be resolved as you move forward with a marital dissolution:

• Type of divorce
• Child custody
• Visitation
• Child support

The unique structure of Pennsylvania’s divorce statutes will have a large impact on how you and the other parent negotiate these issues.

Types of Divorce in Pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania court will only grant a divorce if one of the spouses has resided in the state for at least six months. The court recognizes three categories:

 

• Divorce by mutual consent
• Divorce following a two-year legal separation
• Divorce on grounds of adultery, bigamy, physical or mental cruelty, abandonment without cause for one year or longer or imprisonment for two years or more

A no-fault divorce that takes place through mutual consent will require approximately four months to process in Pennsylvania. Couples who choose this route generally maintain more control over other parts of the divorce settlement. This option is typically better for children because it minimizes the adversarial components of the marital dissolution.

To pursue a no-fault divorce by mutual consent, both you and your spouse must agree that your marriage is irretrievably damaged so that neither of you contests the action. Courts will impose a mandatory waiting period of 90 days between the time the pertinent paperwork is filed and the time that the divorce decree is signed.

Parenting Plans

If you and your former partner can agree on a plan that covers the terms of custody and how parental decisions are to be made, the family court system will generally abide by the choices the two of you have arrived at together.

Your parenting plan should be as complete as possible, and it should consider the best interests of the children over the individual interests of either parent. The most important decision you and the other parent will make is the one regarding custody. Legal custody and physical custody are usually considered separately in Pennsylvania courts. If the court feels that two parents are able to cooperate even minimally in making decisions concerning their child’s education, religion and medical care, then shared legal custody is often granted. Otherwise, one of the parents will be granted sole legal custody.

Physical custody is defined according to the stipulations in Pennsylvania Statute Title 23 Pa.C.S.A Section 5328(a). This statute defines four types of physical custody, and it also addresses the visitation rights of noncustodial parents:

• Sole physical custody: The child lives with one parent alone, although the other parent will probably have visitation rights since Pennsylvania recognizes the importance that contact with both parents has on a child’s emotional development and well-being.
• Primary physical custody: The child spends most of his or her time with one parent. The other parent will have visitation rights in most cases.
• Partial physical custody: The child spends more time with one parent than the other.
• Shared or joint physical custody: The child spends frequent amounts of time with both parents. Pennsylvania family courts often use this designation even if the child spends slightly more time with one parent.

A Jenkintown divorce lawyer can explain the effect that Pennsylvania’s divorce laws may have on your family’s unique set of circumstances and assist you in drawing up a parenting plan. Call (215) 886-1266 today to contact the law office of Joanne Kleiner in Jenkintown so that you can set up a consultation.