Law Office of Joanne Kleiner

Alimony

Dec 02

What Are the Differences Between Getting an Annulment and a Divorce?

Key Differences Between an Annulment and a Divorce

If you’re considering ending your marriage with the assistance of a divorce lawyer, you’re not alone. In the USA, about 50% of marriages end in divorce. Second and subsequent marriages have even higher divorce rates, and understanding the difference between an annulment and a divorce will help you make the best decision for your personal and financial future.

Invalidation of the Marriage

The biggest difference between a divorce and an annulment is that an annulment declares the marriage to have been legally invalid. A divorce is the ending of a legally valid marriage. By declaring a marriage invalid, an annulment is like erasing a marriage. However, the legal marriage records still remain on file in the courts. A religious annulment has no legal standing. If you want a legally binding annulment, this requires a court process.

Legal Termination of a Valid Marriage

A divorce is the legal termination of a valid marriage. The divorce decree states that both parties are single again. It ends all of the legal rights and obligations that married spouses have to each other. It also ends the legal benefits of a marriage, such as health care and survivorship benefits.

Reasons for a Divorce

Courts accept a wide variety of reasons for a divorce. The most common type of divorce is a no-fault divorce. This means that neither party is the cause of the ending of the marriage. “Irreconcilable differences” is the most frequently cited reason behind a no-fault divorce.

Pennsylvania law allows you or your soon-to-be-ex-spouse to file for a fault divorce. A fault divorce entails proving that the other party in the marriage acted in a way so as to end the marriage. Some reasons for a fault divorce include adultery, domestic violence, and cruel treatment. In a fault divorce, there are differences in the divorce settlement. For example, the spouse who committed adultery may be ineligible for alimony. The other spouse will have to prove to the court that the adultery took place in order to be granted a fault divorce.

Reasons for an Annulment

You may consider filing for an annulment if you or the other party believes that the marriage should never have taken place. For example, you may have gotten married by the justice of the peace after going on just two dates with your spouse. If you decide this marriage should never have taken place, filing for an annulment is a way to erase the marriage. Other reasons for an annulment include the discovery of secrets. If you would have had access to this information at the time of the marriage, you would not have gone through with it. For example, if your spouse had a child and didn’t tell you about them, this may be a reason for annulment.

Legal Grounds for Annulment

Pennsylvania courts also offer legal grounds for annulment that are not available for divorce. For example, if the marriage is incestuous or if one or both of the spouses were not legally old enough to marry, these are grounds for an annulment.

Eligibility for Alimony

After an annulment, neither party is eligible to receive alimony or spousal support. After a divorce, one of the parties may be able to receive alimony. Alimony may be granted if one person was a stay-at-home spouse or parent, cannot work, or earns significantly less money than the other spouse.

A consultation with a divorce lawyer in Jenkintown, PA, makes it easier to understand the options for ending your marriage. After consulting with a divorce attorney, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you explored all of the options and made the best possible decision for your future. For more information about the differences between an annulment and a divorce, contact the Law Office of Joanne Kleiner at 215-886-1266, or fill out our online form today.

Sep 16

How Do You Negotiate a Satisfactory Alimony Payment Plan?

Tips for Negotiating Fair Alimony Payments

As more and more women join the workplace, alimony rates have dropped sharply. However, alimony may still be necessary in some situations. To reduce the stress and hassle associated with alimony negotiations, follow these tips.

Know the Legal Guidelines Around Alimony

Before you even begin negotiations, it is important to know what you can and cannot do. In Pennsylvania, the law only requires alimony in situations in which one spouse is dependent on the other. There is no set threshold for what counts as a dependency, but it usually involves one spouse paying for the majority of the other spouse’s living expenses.

It is possible for someone to receive support after splitting from his or her spouse but before the divorce is finalized. This alimony has to be calculated with a formula determined by Pennsylvania law. For alimony after a divorce, there is more leeway in how it is calculated. The couple can come to an agreement on their own, or the court will consider the alimony petition and decide for them. The court will consider things like:

  • The length of the marriage
  • Each spouse’s earning capacity
  • Each spouse’s physical health
  • The standard of living during the marriage
  • Whether the custodial parent will be able to earn enough money
  • How many personal assets each spouse has

Check Any Prenups You Signed

If you signed a prenuptial agreement, one of the first things to do is go over the document carefully with your divorce lawyer. In most cases, you will need to stick to your prenuptial agreement during the divorce. This is generally the fairest and simplest way of determining alimony. However, either one of the spouses can ask the court to throw out prenup alimony provisions. If the court determines that the prenup would destitute one of the spouses, it may be thrown out. You can also get a prenup thrown out if you can show that there were irregularities in creating the document.

Gather Information About All Parties’ Incomes, Assets and Expenses

A fair alimony negotiation depends primarily on taking a close look at both party’s finances. You will need to consider which assets are shared marital assets that will be split in the divorce and which assets are separately owned and that each spouse gets to keep. Next, take a look at how much each person earns. In addition to current salary, look at income potential. For example, a person who was a stay-at-home parent for 20 years may find it hard to get a high-paying job.

Figuring out how much money each person has can help you see whether you or your spouse needs alimony. In addition to income, you also need to evaluate needs. Look at each person’s lifestyle, and try to determine how much he or she would need for food, shelter and other essentials. Remember that each person should, ideally, have enough to keep up with the standard of living he or she had before the divorce.

Avoid Extremely Unfair Offers or Other Rude Behavior

When negotiating alimony, try to keep it focused on the facts. Talk about how much each partner makes, how much each individual needs and whether each person is legally entitled to alimony. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done when emotions are involved. Divorces can be fairly complicated, and many people are tempted to use alimony as a way of resolving hurt feelings.

This can lead to issues like one party asking for an abnormally high amount of money or offering an insultingly low amount. Alimony negotiations can further devolve if partners start slinging accusations at each other, engaging in name-calling or involving children in arguments. If you are worried that personal feelings may get in the way of fair alimony, consider hiring a mediator or working with a lawyer that has experience with these types of matters. This can help your negotiations proceed more fairly.

If you want a fair and satisfactory alimony negotiation, you need talented divorce lawyers on your side. The Law Office of Joanne Kleiner is here in Jenkintown to help with alimony and other parts of a divorce. Call (215) 886-1266 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a consultation now.

Feb 21

Comparing and Contrasting the Various Types of Alimony in Divorce

A Brief Explanation of the Different Types of Alimony

Although everything is rarely split right down the middle in a divorce, the process almost always breaks apart most, if not all, aspects of spouses’ lives. According to a 2013 U.S. Census Bureau publication, 93.4% of the 1.8 million Americans who provide alimony to their former romantic partners or spouses are men. Of the $18.3 billion given to ex-partners or ex-spouses as court-ordered financial support, the mean and median annual amounts were $5,154 and $9,958, respectively.

All Alimony Eventually Boils Down to This

No matter what type of alimony you’re ordered to pay, it’s still alimony. Alimony, like all elements of divorce, is highly situationally dependent. In other words, alimony payments won’t just depend on your income.

The purpose of alimony is to support your ex-spouse’s lifestyle following a divorce. As you’ll learn throughout this article, different types of alimony serve different purposes. All of them, however, force someone to make regular payments to his or her ex-spouse.

A Precursor — Understanding Divorce and Legal Separation

Before diving into these three types of alimony, it’s important to understand the differences between divorce and legal separation.

As you may know, courts use marriages to officially recognize partners as full-fledged spouses. Marriages create legal obligations and rights for spouses, including the choice to file income taxes as married filing jointly. The IRS actually encourages married couples to file jointly by offering them several tax credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

Similar to how courts legally recognize marriage, courts also formally recognize divorce as the immediate, permanent dissolution of marriage. Although alimony can be an upside or a downside, depending on which side you’re on, divorce comes with downsides, such as potentially having the responsibility to make financial support payments to your soon-to-be ex-spouse.

In terms of legal recognition, Pennsylvania courts don’t care whether you’re engaged to or dating someone. Conversely, splitting from your spouse without getting divorced does, in fact, hold legal weight in some states. This alternative to divorce is known as legal separation.

Pennsylvania, however, doesn’t have laws that recognize legal separation. The Quaker State allows spouses to create separation agreements that have many of the same functions as divorces without actually getting divorced.

Some of these functions include splitting property, creating co-parenting schedules, determining alimony payments, calculating child support obligations, and establishing who’s responsible for paying bills and outstanding debts.

Now that you understand the difference between legal separation and divorce, we can review the three different types of alimony recognized by the Keystone State: spousal support, alimony and alimony pendente lite.

Spousal Support

Unlike alimony or alimony pendente lite, spousal support is the only type of alimony that requires legal separation to be involved. Although courts want both spouses to support themselves, judges grant spousal support to dependent spouses to help them get on their feet.

Spousal support is available after you’ve formally filed a separation agreement and up until you or your spouse file for divorce. It doesn’t matter who files for divorce. As such, this form of financial support ends whether you or your spouse files for divorce.

Pennsylvania courts use a complex formula, which is found under 231 Pa. Code § 1910.16-4, to calculate the dollar amount of spousal support owed.

Alimony Pendente Lite

After spousal support eligibility ends, the dependent spouse can receive alimony pendente lite, which translates from Latin into English as “alimony pending litigation.”

This type of court-ordered financial support begins after a spouse has filed a divorce complaint and ends after the divorce is finalized.

Alimony pendente lite helps dependent spouses keep their proverbial heads above water throughout the divorce process. It also gives them the chance to properly defend themselves in court by hiring a divorce lawyer. Alimony pendente lite is calculated with the same formula that’s mentioned above. It’s just as long, and arguably too complex, for any non-attorney to understand.

Alimony

This is the alimony you probably had in mind before reading this article. In Pennsylvania, judges award alimony to dependent spouses to lighten the financial load of transitioning to pre-marriage life.

Although exceptions exist, alimony usually doesn’t break the better-off spouse’s bank. Judges strive to be reasonable when determining whether dependent spouses should receive ongoing financial support and, if so, what amount.

Lastly, there isn’t a time limit for alimony payments. Still, you shouldn’t expect to make monthly alimony payments indefinitely. Court-ordered spousal financial support usually won’t last more than a few years.

If you’re anticipating a divorce or legal separation, you can’t go wrong by contacting the Law Office of Joanne Kleiner of Jenkintown at (215) 886-1266. The firm’s sole practitioner, the well-tenured divorce lawyer, Joanne Kleiner, has more than 42 years of legal experience. You can also reach us by filling out our website’s contact form.

Sep 19

The Impact of COVID-19 on Child Support and Alimony Orders

How COVID-19 Is Impacting Child Support and Alimony Orders

This year, the spread of COVID-19 brought most areas of everyday life to a screeching halt. With more than 45 million Americans filing for unemployment at the beginning of state-ordered shutdowns from mid-March to early April, most households have experienced a change in their employment and, possibly, their finances. Changing finances can affect the households of divorced couples and parents who have informal or court-ordered financial support arrangements in place.

How Covid-19 Is Affecting Spousal and Child Support

Recent spikes in unemployment have caused many people’s incomes to decrease rapidly and unexpectedly. For custodial parents and recently divorced individuals, a sudden reduction in their household income makes child support and alimony payments even more critical for maintaining their lifestyles. At the same time, parents and former spouses who are required to make maintenance payments may find themselves struggling to meet their financial obligations. As a result, both sides are more likely to find themselves seeking legal recourse.

Impacts on Child Custody Arrangements and Visitation

COVID-19’s effects extend beyond financial support orders. People who have court-ordered visitation agreements may be unable to follow their regular schedules due to travel restrictions and health advisories. Parents who typically meet their children in public settings during visits or to exchange custody may find it challenging to find a mutually convenient, safe setting in which they can have visits or pick up their children. In addition to parents facing logistical challenges, courts and administrative agencies must also develop solutions to compliance-related questions.

What Can Custodial Parents and Formerly Dependent Spouses Do?

Every case is different. Therefore, parents who have custody of their children and individuals who receive spousal support should immediately notify their attorneys if COVID-19 is disrupting their child support or alimony payments. In cases in which both adults can communicate civilly, both parties may be able to work out temporary arrangements and abide by them for as long as the pandemic impacts their original agreement. Parties that can agree to modify their agreement should contact their respective lawyers and put the new terms in writing.

What Can Noncustodial Parents and Former Spouses Who Pay Alimony Do?

Parents and individuals who are ordered to make support payments to their former spouses and/or their children may get a reprieve by requesting a modification. If the paying party is unable to agree with the receiving party to temporarily amend the current support order’s terms, the paying party may unilaterally seek a modification in court by filing a motion. To file the motion, the party who wishes to seek a modification should contact a divorce lawyer or, if the parties were never married, a family law attorney who specializes in child custody cases.

Jurisdictional Changes Due to COVID-19

Several jurisdictions across the U.S. are making adjustments to their standard procedures due to the impact of coronavirus. Courts are closed due to social distancing orders. In many cities and states, administrative staff members work remotely and may have modified office hours. Court closures and staffing limitations have led to delays in hearing schedules, and court access may be much more limited than under ordinary circumstances. The responses from different states have been mixed. In some states, courts may be shut down completely, which may result in compounding debt for noncustodial parents who have recently lost their jobs due to the impact of COVID-19 on business operations.

Legal Advice for Support Orders Affected by COVID-19

Whether you have been ordered to make maintenance payments to a spouse or support payments for a child or if you are the court-ordered recipient of support payments, the first step toward seeking legal remedy to challenges presented by COVID-19 is to contact a divorce lawyer. Your attorney will know about the latest updates on how your jurisdiction is currently processing cases that involve support orders. Our Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, divorce lawyer can help you navigate even the most contentious situations while protecting your rights. Call us today at (215) 886-1266 for a case evaluation.