Every so often, we have a client come to us that is in need of a good defense lawyer to assist them with unreasonable support demands from their ex. We help our clients reach more reasonable demands that both parties can agree to.
What qualifies as an unreasonable support demand? Here are a few examples to help you further understand.
What are Support Demands in a Divorce?
During a divorce, there are a few different types of support that can come into play.
Alimony, or spousal support, is the most popular, as it applies to almost every divorces, whether there were kids involved or not.
The amount awarded in alimony is based on a few things, including the length of the marriage, how much money each party makes, and the lifestyle that the couple was living before the divorce. The health of the person receiving the money can also come into play.
Note that there are multiple types of alimony. For example, rehabilitative alimony is designed to help the recipient get back on their feet. It can help pay for the recipient to get an education or learn new job skills so they can get by on their own.
Another type of alimony is permanent, which means the recipient will keep receiving the support until they either remarry or pass away. On the other side of the coin, temporary alimony exists when a couple separates or isn’t fully divorced.
The second most common type of support next to alimony is child support. This is set up to help the primary guardian be able to provide what the children need. The more children there are, the higher the amount of child support required.
What are Considered Unreasonable Support Demands?
How can support demands be unreasonable?
The recipient may be asking for more than the amount of money required to live their previous lifestyle. Perhaps they were perfectly happy in a small 3 bedroom house on the outskirts of town where costs are lower. However, now they want to move into a nicer part of town and rent a bigger, much more expensive home. To compensate, they need more money in alimony than is fair.
Or maybe they’ve decided to go back to school and have their ex-spouse pay for reimbursement alimony. That can work out, but in this case, perhaps the recipient decided to go to a private, expensive college. In that case, it’s unreasonable to expect the person paying alimony to foot the entire bill. A private school is much more expensive than a small community college.
How Do You Defend Against Them?
While what is considered an unreasonable support demand may be figured on a case-by-case basis, it’s our goal to make sure our clients get the best possible representation.
Feel free to send us an email at info@voneschlaw.com with any questions you have on unreasonable support demands. We’ll help you through this stressful time.
